An allegory (taken from the Italian word Allegoria) refers to the expression of truth or generalization about human existence by means of symbolic fictional figures and their actions. Thus is the metaphor translated onto the silver screen from first time film writer/director, Spider One.

Following in the footsteps of his big brother, Rob Zombie, Spider One has put together a manifesto of illusion through a niche group of artists beginning in a collaborative acting class led by John Anderson Wright (a superb Ennis.) Wright lines up the amateurs in an exercise of scare and fear tactics to produce a terrorizing reaction. What develops from this drill is an unexpected fright that retreats the audience back in time as to how the progression formed.

Through a series of small scenes that touch upon the actor’s workshop attendees (and those who share commonalities with some of the students), we are lured into the phobias of several untapped minds which begin to peel away at the surface slowly.

Spider One impeccably lays out a creepy atmosphere of blistering piano scores, uncomfortable conversations, and a few monster appearances along the way.

We meet a painter who watches a burnt corpse slice open his neck as an observer, a talented young photographer on a date with uneasy pictures that are presented as art examples (it’s how it makes you feel, not what you see), and my favorite – a screenplay writer whose villainous character is manifested into reality with a grudge against the script’s direction.

It soon becomes relevant when we join two female friends with equal creative ambition, turn dark with holistic dread after one transfers evil through (what appears) to be an urban legend. Think “Evil Dead meets The Exorcist” and determine if yet another careless mishap is to blame for the gruesome destruction which is about to unleash.

It’s wild, it’s rough and it’s distressing. In all, Allegoria is built on ultimate annihilation with maximum discomfort.