Nosebleed takes the psychological damage of content moderation and turns it into a psychosexual queer thriller, making you wonder how anyone gets through a workday dealing with the internet’s darkest material without needing several therapists and a very long shower.
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That’s the twisted premise behind Nosebleed, a new short from Oxygen Films CIC arriving this winter. And judging by its trailer, this is one film that has absolutely no interest in being coy.
Adam Wadsworth Gets Very Deep Into the Dark Web
Adam Wadsworth, currently appearing in Stranger Things: The First Shadow, stars as Victor, a content moderator whose already disturbing relationship with the internet takes an increasingly sinister turn. His attention becomes fixated on a colleague played by Theo Walker, and what begins as an obsession eventually blurs the line between fantasy, technology and reality.
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The film is described as “A psycho-sexual queer thriller which blends fantasy and reality against a backdrop of the deep, dark web; told through the eyes of a prospective serial killer.”
And yes, Nosebleed is very much leaning into the “psychosexual” part. The film features explicit sex and extended nudity, with Victor’s fixation on his colleague becoming central to the story. Basically, this is not your gentle little queer short about two men exchanging meaningful glances across a café.
When Doomscrolling Becomes a Full-Time Psychological Breakdown
Victor works as a content moderator for one of the world’s largest social media networks, meaning his professional life consists of confronting some of the internet’s ugliest material before most of us ever have to see it.
It’s a grimly recognizable setup. Content moderators are tasked with dealing with the material platforms don’t want appearing in ordinary users’ feeds, and Nosebleed takes that already bleak premise somewhere considerably more disturbing.
From writer-director Gage Oxley, the film follows Victor as his exposure to the darkest corners of the internet starts bleeding into his private life. Rather than simply becoming numb to what he sees, Victor develops an unsettling fascination with it.
Off the clock, he becomes immersed in a deep-web subculture involving hidden cameras, AI and other technology used to create graphic and explicit material, much of it involving the colleague he can’t stop thinking about.
And that is where Nosebleed starts playing its nastiest trick.
Theo Walker, Colin Grafton, and a Very Uncomfortable Kind of Eye Candy
Walker, known for Firebird, plays the colleague at the center of Victor’s obsession, while Colin Grafton — yes, the Dancing on Ice star — makes his acting debut.
Grafton also appears shirtless, because apparently Nosebleed understands that psychological horror and attractive men do not have to exist in separate cinematic universes.
But the nudity isn’t simply there for decoration. The film uses sex, bodies and voyeurism as part of its exploration of intimacy in an increasingly digital world. That makes the eye candy feel considerably less innocent. Which, frankly, seems very on-brand.
Is Nosebleed’s Victor Actually Doing It?
The deeper Victor falls into his obsession, the harder it becomes to tell what is actually happening.
Nosebleed deliberately leaves audiences questioning whether the disturbing acts unfolding on screen are real or products of Victor’s increasingly fractured imagination. Fantasy and reality begin bleeding into each other until even the viewer is forced to question what they’re seeing.
That uncertainty gives the film more to chew on than simply “content moderator discovers the dark web and loses it.”
With its combination of queer sexuality, dark-web paranoia, psychological horror and some extremely committed nudity, Nosebleed certainly isn’t hiding what kind of experience it wants to deliver.
Sometimes the internet really is a sh*tshow. Nosebleed just wants to take you somewhere considerably darker after you log off.
Source: Oxygenfilms