Believe it or Don't: A strange trip into the gears of Charles Bowers

Is it worth your time?

Honestly, it depends on how much you like watching a man struggle with inanimate objects. If you want a smooth story, skip this. If you want to see the weirdest special effects from a century ago, pull up a chair.

People who love Spuk um Mitternacht for its odd atmosphere will get a kick out of this. If you find old silent films boring, this will probably just annoy you to no end. 😵‍💫

The man was a genius or just totally unhinged

Charles R. Bowers isn't acting like he’s in a movie; he’s acting like he’s fighting a war against physics. There’s this one sequence where he’s messing with tools and machinery that just feels impossibly tactile.

You keep waiting for the cut, but it never comes. He’s just there, neck-deep in clutter. It makes the shiny, CGI-heavy stuff we get today feel a bit hollow, honestly.

Odd bits I noticed

• The way he looks at the camera—like he knows something we don't.
• The sheer amount of dust in every frame. You can practically smell the attic.
• The stop-motion objects move with this jerky, aggressive energy. It’s almost stressful to watch.
• The pacing is frantic. It’s like a sugar-addled kid running through a hardware store.

It’s not as polished as Oh Kay!, but that’s exactly why I like it. It feels like a project someone made in their garage before they realized they were supposed to be making a 'proper' film.

There is a scene where a box just... does things. I won't spoil it, but it’s the kind of thing that makes you rewind just to see if your brain played a trick on you.

Sometimes, the movie stops making sense entirely. One minute we’re here, the next we’re watching a pile of junk transform into something else. It’s messy. It’s loud in its own silent way.

Don't look for a lesson. Don't look for character growth. Just watch the gears turn. Sometimes that's enough for a Tuesday night. 🎞️