Cold Meridian and Tingles in My Ear

ASMR (autonomous sensory meridian response) videos are one of the most popular internet phenomena in recent years. Millions of videos of ASMR triggers are posted on YouTube or other social media platforms. “Cold Meridian”(2020) by Peter Strickland explores the limits of audio and visual stimulus and captures the audience with its usage of ASMR. Since I had no idea about the ASMR videos, I decided to look at a few videos before watching the film. First of all, there is an ASMR trigger video for every action that makes a sound (playing with slime, eating a crispy cookie, cleaning earwax etc.). Although most viewers stated that these videos were comforting and satisfying, it was an incredibly disturbing experience for me. The slow movements and the intensity of the sound provoked nausea but also hypnotized me. I experienced similar unpleasant feelings while watching the film too.

“Cold Meridian” begins with quiet and unhurried music. This music is accompanied by still closeup images of a camera and hair with credits. The heavy stillness confuses the audience (it made me a little anxious on my second view). This stasis is interrupted by a close-up of a very slow hair washing movement. Also, an intense and eerie sound accompanies this slow movement. This close-up shot and the intense sound of hair wash, I think, created an “ultra-reality” which is above ordinary reality. It is a bit difficult to explain, but I felt as if this scene showed me the “reality” that my weak/inadequate sensory receptors could not discover. On the other hand, this intensity causes a very unusual perception and makes the audience question the reality of what is seen or heard. For example, the sound we hear is not a usual hair washing sound, it is more like the sound of tangled tentacles or wild animals eating raw meat (which was very disturbing for me). Therefore, the sound contradicts sharply with the image, and it keeps the audience on hop. Then the audience sees a camera recording this performance and a hypnotized viewer watching it on her computer. The director shows the channel and receiver as well as sender and the message, so all the communication process is depicted. Seeing another viewer makes the audience, who is another part of this communication network, realize the hypnosis that they experience. The image of the camera and the direct call of the performer to her viewer reveal the voyeuristic structure in this kind of communication channel. The viewer attends this intense performance, which is consumed quickly, with a comment she made. The keyboard sound that came out while writing a comment (it was repeated throughout the film) brought me back to reality, because it was a sound that I was used to. The viewer switches to a drawing video to consume after the hair washing video.

The drawing of a dance scene we see in this video is the beginning of a nightmarish dance ritual. After this drawing, we see the aggressive dance of a naked pair in a sequence of negative photographs. This sequence is accompanied by the still music we heard in the beginning and a female voice whispering “9523”. I would prefer this sequence (and other dance sequences) be silent. I believe the silence after those intense diegetic sounds would be striking and it would create a contrast with the aggressive bodily movements. Then the audience sees the positive photo choreography, again with the same music (but this time it is more lively and deep). Towards the end of the film, a part of this dance is shown in motion. I think splitting the dance choreography into layers and combining them like a puzzle adds a nice depth to the film and manipulates the visual perception of the audience. However, as I mentioned before, I think the use of sound in these scenes is distracting and breaks the sequences’ spell. Shortly, this seven-minute film created a very tense and uneasy experience for me. Strickland wanted to experiment with the sound rather than focusing on storytelling and I believe he was very successful with this experiment. The use of sound was very uncanny and made me feel tinglings in my ear (especially the hair washing sounds).