smartly integrated 3 story anthology of black comic urban legend horror tales, all struggling economically precarious men thrown into nasty supernatural (and human) situations of which they are barely equipped to handle. some very nasty horror emotions barely disguised by comedy, matched by how yau gets more matter of fact the more serious the emotions get. the implications of the cursed old room showing up in the new skyscraper, wonderfully blunt. yau shows the 82 clip of Margaret thatcher falling down the stairs in the first few minutes which more or less sets the tone.

not quite manchette level mean, but close enough to make the comparison. graf has a way of adding really hideous character/cultural detail to even the smallest scene in a way that turns normal procedural moments into something either funny or dreadful. the overall push from police procedural to overwhelming paranoia is more effective than some of the formal gestures (i.e. the tape face policemen) graf uses to get us to the final shot.

history just a stick falling over in the snow, or a shadow cast over someone.