Lucid Short Film Review: When Art School Becomes a Blood Bath

The Lucid short film was released in 2021 and directed by Deanna Milligan. It opens with disconcerting chaos, loud, jarring audio that immediately establishes Mia’s fractured headspace. Our rebellious art student has been obsessively reworking the same self-portrait, each iteration a deliberate re-appropriation with intention. Her latest installation features raw steak taped to canvas, presented to a patronizing audience of peers and professors who collectively miss the point.

• Stage Fright Productions
• Lucid Film Productions
• Sublunar Films

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When Artistic Vision Meets Academic Arrogance

The setup in the Lucid short film screams Velvet Buzzsaw territory, that same exploration of what constitutes “legitimate” art versus the commodified, sanitized version academia demands. But where Dan Gilroy’s film satirized the art world’s pretensions, LUCID cuts deeper, asking fundamental questions: Who decides what art should be? Why must creativity be palatable to be valid?

Mia’s professor delivers the killing blow with academic condescension: she wants her to “try something new” and “show me something with heart.”

The irony burns, Mia has been showing heart all along, just not the kind that fits institutional expectations.

The Genesis of Gore Aesthetic

Through fragmented flashbacks triggered by her psychological break, we witness Mia’s formative moment: her father cutting open a fish to reveal the anatomy within. While others recoiled, young Mia found beauty in the visceral reality of life’s inner workings. Her mother’s disgusted “that’s disgusting” becomes the chorus of rejection that follows Mia through life, from family dinner tables to art school critiques.

“We are all just big bags of blood,” her father explained, inadvertently providing the philosophical foundation for Mia’s artistic worldview. It’s a brutal truth wrapped in paternal wisdom, one that shapes her understanding of humanity’s fundamental nature. The more society condemns her fascination with gore and viscera, the more obsessed she becomes with this core truth everyone else refuses to acknowledge.

This isn’t just shock value, it’s artistic archaeology, digging into the uncomfortable realities that polite society prefers to ignore. Mia sees beauty where others see revulsion, finding honesty in what others consider grotesque.

“Keep going, you’ll find your voice.”

The Systematic Destruction of Creative Spirit

At just 16 minutes, LUCID delivers a masterclass in artistic trauma. The feedback Mia endures represents every creative soul’s nightmare – the systematic dismantling of vision through institutional gatekeeping:

“What do you think about mastering the basics before you try something new?”

Each critique lands like psychological warfare, designed to break down rather than build up. The professors aren’t teaching – they’re controlling, demanding conformity to their narrow definition of acceptable expression. It’s the age-old question: does art serve the artist’s vision or the audience’s comfort?

Mia’s journey forces us to confront uncomfortable truths about artistic validation. Why should creativity be sanitized? Why must profound expression be palatable to those who’ve never felt compelled to create anything meaningful themselves?

Art School Carrie Delivers Crimson Catharsis

The finale builds toward that inevitable moment when the rejected artist stops seeking approval and starts demanding recognition. Like an art school version of Carrie, the aesthetic setup telegraphs the coming storm while her classmates remain blissfully unaware. Any horror fan will recognize the visual cues – the careful staging, the deliberate positioning, the calm before the creative carnage.

Without spoiling the climax, Mia completes her next installation “despite them all,” and it’s a piece that finally makes her voice impossible to ignore. The ending delivers that rare moment where artistic revenge feels not just justified but necessary, a blood-soaked declaration that authentic expression cannot be contained by academic expectations.

Beauty isn’t just in the eye of the beholder – sometimes it’s in the courage to show others what they’re too cowardly to see themselves.

Rating: 4 out of 5 rebellious art installations that refuse to apologize

“When your failures are just ordinary failures and you don’t deserve my attention.”

Watch the Lucid Short Film

“There’s no there, there.”

Quote from the Lucid short film by

WordPress Excerpt (160 chars): Art student Mia’s gore-obsessed installations face academic rejection until her bloody aesthetic becomes something far more dangerous and honest.

Extended Meta Description: LUCID short film review explores artistic authenticity versus academic conformity. When art student Mia’s visceral installations face constant rejection, her bloody aesthetic evolves into something dangerously honest. This 16-minute psychological horror examines who decides what constitutes legitimate art, building anticipation for the feature film premiering at Fantasia 2025.

Suggested Tags:

• Fantasia Film Festival
• Short Films
• Art Horror
• Academic Horror
• Velvet Buzzsaw
• Artistic Expression
• Creative Rebellion
• Gore Aesthetic
• Female Rage
• Institutional Critique

Lucid

Director: Deanna Milligan

Date Created: 2021-05-07 16:01

Editor's Rating:
4