Fantastic Fest 2022: Mister Organ — Another Wild Rollercoaster Ride From David Farrier
Journalist David Farrier is drawn into a game of cat and mouse with a mysterious individual. Delving deeper he unearths a trail of court cases, royal bloodlines and ruined lives, in this true story of psychological warfare.
David Farrier has a knack for finding real-life scary monsters and super freaks, and his latest documentary, Mister Organ, finds him getting in over his head whilst exposing another weirdo. Instead of a wealthy megalomaniac with a tickle fetish (as glimpsed in his previous documentary Tickled), Farrier unearths an energy vampire of the highest order. For real, this guy, the titular Mister Organ, is like a more maniacal, obnoxious, and hilarious version of Colin Robinson from the What We Do In The Shadows TV series. He’s also a lot more terrifying given that he’s a real person still roaming freely in the New Zealand area, imbedding himself into the lives of unsuspecting victims and inflicting extreme psychological distress.
In true Farrier fashion, the film starts with what appears to be a simple, quirky story that promptly leads the Kiwi filmmaker down a dark rabbit hole full of baffling information and dizzying litigation that must be seen to be believed. What begins as a short piece on a mysterious and vindictive wheel clamper in the Auckland area of New Zealand explodes into something much larger: a tangled web that unfolds in shocking layers that sends Farrier into a paranoid nightmare, which consumed several years of his life. You can’t help but be captivated by the madness and taken for a wonderfully weird, weirdly wild, and wildly entertaining ride.
The film’s subject, Michael Organ, who’s sort of a cross between Anton LaVey and Sean Connery, is an oddball with a strange charisma and a disarming sense of humor thats masks his slippery manipulation and sociopathic tendencies. The film attempts to crack the code on this psychopathic puzzle box, and it results in a chilling and complex game of cat and mouse that sends Farrier to the edge. His deep dive here comes at an exorbitant price as both his patience and sanity are worn paper thin by Organ’s antics and insidious infiltration, which includes him somehow coming into possession to a key to Farrier’s house and sneaking in while he’s asleep. You can see the emotional toll the film takes on Farrier as he follows Organ’s fascinatingly vast and winding mystery to its farthest depths, and there are times where you genuinely concerned for his safety.
The film’s engrossing rollercoaster ride is totally unsettling, but it’s also laced with nice bits of comedic levity that help to break up the tension and suspense. It’s very comparable to Tickled in terms of how its exposé is structured, but it’s elevated by higher production value and a pulsing and eerie electronic score, both of which help to give it an air of David Fincher. The film’s high velocity hell is peppered with several peripheral reports and accounts of Organ and his behavior before he steps into the documentary in a big way. In one of the film’s most interesting turns, Organ willingly becomes an active participant in the film, as he steps through the portrait and directly into Farrier’s life. There’s a lot of Organ’s bullshit that makes it onto the screen, but there’s a lot more that wound up on the cutting room floor due to New Zealand’s free speech laws, which are more stringent than those of the U.S, which means there’s probably an even more absorbing version out there.
The film is a bit of an accidental retread of Tickled, but it is just as good in our opinion. You can see Farrier struggle to find an conclusion, but he’s manages to tie up loose ends in a pretty satisfactory way. There’s a lot of memorable moments, hilarious quotes (the best being “you probably would’ve been quite an interesting person to know if you weren’t such a cunt”), and entertainment value to be had. We’re certainly appreciative of the “soul tax” that Farrier had to endure during his three years of production to put this together, and we await the next sinister weirdo that Farrier decides to unearth.
Recommendation: If you’re a fan of dark documentaries that drag real-life monsters into the daylight, you should definitely check out Mister Organ. The film is a psychological thriller with a fascinating mystery that painstakingly explores the toxicity of its titular personality.
Going mad for more?! Check out the links below:
Fantastic Fest Q&A: Mister Organ w/David Farrier
Fantastic Fest 2022 articles
Fantastic Fest 2022 reviews
Fantastic Fest 2022 podcasts
What do you think? We want to know. Share your thoughts and feelings in the comments section below, and as always, remember to viddy well!