Baby Invasion, the latest by one of America’s most controversial auteurs working today Harmony Korine, recently screened at the midnight slot at Fantastic Fest, after premiering at Venice. It’s the director’s follow up to Aggro Dr1ft, a film shot completely in infrared that was screened exclusively in strip clubs and ignited this new era in the director’s career, that has him demolishing the boundaries between visual art, experimental cinema and commerce fueled by his collective/brand EDGLRD. I honestly couldn’t imagine a better crowd to experience this with, and after an intro by Harmony himself, who showed up in a bright yellow baby mask, I wasn’t sure what to expect.
@cinapse.co Harmony Korine’s unforgettable intro to a midnight screening of Baby Invasion #babyinvasion #HarmonyKorine #fantasticfest #fantasticfest2024 #fyp #tiktok #foryoupage #filmtok ♬ original sound – cinapse.co
The film begins with an intro about an unfinished home invasion game called “Baby Invasion”, that was leaked and pirated on the dark web, where it became a pop-culture phenomenon with millions of players daily. The Harmony hook here is, the in-game players, who execute said terrible home invasions are clad in EDGLRD branded tech wear, with gnarly horns, but with happy cooing baby faces. The film then launches into what is essentially a live stream, as events transpire both in the real world, and in game. The line begins to blur a bit when the streamers from the game also stream IRL home invasions. While that whole real life violence imitating art premise is nothing new, it’s never been presented like this.
If you’ve ever watched a twitch stream, you’re going to acclimate pretty quickly to how the film is presented bombarding you with information. The left side of the screen has a chat constantly running, reacting, trolling and egging on what’s happening on screen. This while we are also inundated with pop-ups, ads and game info windows throughout. There’s a dark alchemy of all the things on screen all working together to tell this story that’s so densely layered, it could be more than a few sitting until you unlocked it all. Pacing-wise the film is relentless, there’s a mythos and lore injected into the streams that offers a few respites from the invasion. I will say the remarkable thing about how unsettling Invasion is, we never actually see any deaths happen on screen which is a very deliberate choice by Korine.
If you didn’t enjoy Aggro Dr1ft, Baby Invasion definitely isn’t for you. It’s Harmony continuing to experiment with his latest pallet of 90s cgi, neon and live action with flourishes of nightmarish AI. It’s a film that’s challenging even its target audience to keep up, if they can. It’s unrelenting, unforgiving while it stands on the bleeding edge of cinema, along with works like The People’s Joker. That’s definitely why it’s so divisive, it’s very much made for those with their brains wired a certain way. Harmony has always targeted his films to the same demographic he started with Kids, and with this storytelling for the chronically online, it feels like he hasn’t lost a beat and it’s just as dangerous as his earlier work. It’s ambitious and another step in an evolution, but to what I don’t think anyone but Korine knows for sure.
