"FOUR EYED MONSTERS"
Starring Susan Buice & Arin Crumley
Internet release: 2005

WATCH THE WHOLE MOVIE

IN MY HEAD, online films have a notorious label, which goes something like this: “Watch only if in the mood for cheap humor, bad acting, and, worst of all (in my book), bad camera work.”

And, after a couple of hours of watching LonelyGirl15 over the summer simply to figure out what the hype was all about, I vowed to never again enter that online, YouTube-driven realm of aspiring-yet-failing filmmakers and their disappointingly bland online films.

Well, sort of.

Some way or another, I managed to stumble across an online film one day that caught my attention: “Four Eyed Monsters,” an award-winning, Slamdance hit.

Then, some way or another, I managed to press play and to watch the whole thing.

The beginning was breathtaking. Clouds moving across the sky, stoplights flashing red, green, yellow, and red again, fast-paced feet walking past the camera, lights blurring by, planes taking off, the sun rising, the sun setting … Was this seriously an online film?

After more research, I came to learn so much more about “Four Eyed Monsters,” leading me to admire Susan Buice and Arin Crumley, the co-directors and stars of this film.

The story is one based on the couple’s history together. The film is about Arin and Susan, both desperately single struggling artists, Arin with his film work and Susan with her drawings. The two loathe and are envious of those “four-eyed monsters” they see in the subway and on the street; yet, both crave a real relationship.

Arin’s solution is to join MySpace and pursue girls who live in New York, hoping to strike up a relationship with one. He comes across Susan’s page and, driven by his interest in this quirky ex-model artist, sends her a message.

Finally, Arin receives his first reply. The two decide to meet and find they have many things in common with each other, probably foremost their quirkiness.

Like the characters they played in the film, Buice and Crumley didn’t speak for four months. Instead, the two wrote on paper what one would normally say out loud, along with using any other artistic medium available to communicate so that they didn’t become a dull, defective couple. This fact and many others are colorfully woven into the plot along with fictional developments.

When Arin and Susan’s relationship takes a more intimate turn, they fall into the dark abyss of silence. Many heavier topics become present in the movie, such as STDs, and, without spoken words, the couple (in particular Arin) alienate themselves from each other as they become more and more involved with one another’s lives.

While making the film, the couple had to rely entirely on their own resources. They paid for all their production costs through credit cards, managing to rack up about $100,000 in debt.

How did they pay it off? Enter Spout.com; Spout offered to pay the pair $1 for every person they got to sign up at the Web site. Through cyberspace, Crumley and Buice strive to achieve another goal and pay back their debt — $46,703 of which has already been paid.

The film carries undertones of criticism against modern-day relationships, in which people talk to each other in cyberspace more than in person. It poses the question: Are we losing our abilities to communicate by tongue?

In short, boy-meets-girl takes a new spin in this independent romantic, artistic, and straying documentary.

To watch "Four Eyed Monsters," click here. Or just watch the whole thing below.

"FOUR EYED MONSTERS": WATCH THE MOVIE HERE

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See the story of the film created in Episodes 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 & 8