Samuel Taylor Coleridge- poet extraordinaire, aesthetic philosopher and all round hero- in 1817 or thereabouts coined the phrase ‘A suspension of disbelief’, suggesting insofar that if a writer could infuse a human interest in a fantastical tale, the reader would suspend all judgement and flow with the piece, not matter what was thrown at them- however fantastical or horrific.
Little did old Sam know, not only could his handy phrase make the leap from page to screen, from reader to viewer (who didn’t get emotionally cavalcaded by the infusion of human interest to an abandoned cowgirl doll in Toy Story 2?!); but that its phraseology would be so apropos with the act of forcing a steel hook through your kneecaps and suspending from it. Or rather, be so apropos to Kate Shenton’s feature directorial debut, the touching expose documentary on said act: ON TENDER HOOKS.
Yes, the white elephant in the room is that this film is about a select community of folk who voluntarily pierce their flesh with less-than-tender hooks and hang their entire bodily weight from these piercings. To the majority it’s shudder inducing material; and sadly to most of those majority it’s also enough of a white elephant to have them reaching for the remote. Case and point: in a scene set at a Body Modification convention, a man who looks remarkably like Charles Bronson with 85% tattoo coverage & 50+ piercings watches members of the team suspend and responds, when asked what he thinks of it, with: ‘that’s too extreme for me’. Suffice to say, it’s gnarly stuff.
But to reduce ON TENDER HOOKS to merely this shock act alone would be tantamount to reducing GONE WITH THE WIND to Nazis. For a feature whose runtime is 85% actual footage of piercing & suspension, none of it feels gratuitous; nothing is played for wanton gore glory. Rather, the documentary is an earnest and, appropriately, tender window into a world unseen; and one I’d readily encourage any of that aforementioned majority to see – white elephant be damned. What we are watching here is not a film about suspension, but a film about people that suspend. Not to say it’s a deep psychological case study into the existential reasons behind suspension, for that would be far too clinical, far too judging: ON TENDER HOOKS is simply a love letter to the diverse family of suspendees.
To briefly digress it’s glowing intentions & touch on the films visuals. Shot for a near minus budget, with a crew of one, shot on a camera and edited on a computer that is advertised on ITV, ON TENDER HOOKS is understandably unpolished and rough around the edges. Such, though both adds to the film’s charm and provides a sense of intimacy to the act that would otherwise be ruined with a large crew of multi-camera coverage and cologne-commercial editing.
Kate Shenton- director, cameramiss, interviewer, interviewee & editor – enters into the scene a suspending virgin, and as such the audience very much takes the journey with her. Aid to this empathy is the films remarkably verite fly-on-the-wall aesthetic. When Kate winces is when we really wince. And to not ruin the films transcendental climax, but wince she does.
Shenton has previously shown with fictional shorts BON APPETITE & GIMP (check them out, they’re boss) that she has a great knack for comedy and cinema. Here, she shows she’s also a dab hand at personal documentary; a good thing considering her next outing is a similar fly-on-the-wall portrait on a character from ON TENDER HOOKS adventures in full body modification, entitled MODIFY ME. Miss Shenton is certainly one to watch from all filmic angles, fictional & non.
Human suspension is actually an act not entirely new to film, seen in varying iterations in from Michael Crichton’s 1978 COMA to last year’s body mod’ sensation AMERICAN MARY and more closely in the documentary MODIFY, but none quite portray the human aspect of the act. None quite manage to make the audience do as Coleridge proposed and suspend their disbelief and become as totally involved in the characters they’re watching. ON TENDER HOOKS does.
7 torn Achilles heels / 10 drunk hot poker brandings
And that’s my two cents.
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