Courts-metrages - Panic Attack: our review

Par Whispertone, 26 mai 2017

Synopsis;
You know the nagging thoughts that start with "did I leave the coffee on?" and turn in to "what if I give birth to Satan's baby?" This hand-drawn animation explores anxiety, obsession, and one woman's slippery hold on reality.

Whispertone’s review:

Eileen O'Meara unquestionably captures the feelings of anxiety, distraction, and worry with her illustrations in her new hand drawn short "Panic Attack!" With seamless fluid transitions from start to finish the flow of this two and a half minute animation is all done in one continually transforming drawing.

From the perspective of a woman waiting at a stop light as she begins to experience a panic attack the viewer travels with her through the erratic eruption of her ever persisting thoughts. They pester and engulf her focus, leaping from one tangent to the next, from one memory to the next, from one possibility to the next and the next and the next. The anxiety of forgetting one small task at home that may be irrelevant for some, and how it unintentionally can snowball into an avalanche of inescapable scenarios.

The amazing capabilities of the human mind can be so outstanding and remarkable yet at the same time they can wickedly scrape at the brim of one's inner fear and become overwhelming, imprisoning and completely intolerable to withstand. O'Meara shows us how these voices that echo in our heads can go from simply annoying to sadistically criticising. She creates the clearest visuals of the cloudiest constructs of anxiety. Dismantling one drawing as it builds into the foundation of another and then topples and dissolves, just as the protagonist loses attention.

O'Meara has established this miniature work of moving (living) art that will resonate existentially with those who suffer and cope, as well as thrive through the daily perils of anxiety."