“The whole thing was like this weird psychedelic dream.”

Genre: Documentaries
Release Date: 2024
Where I Watched: Netflix

Gist: Auckland, NZ, 2016. What started as a “silly” investigative piece about a parking lot that (threatens) folks who dare to park in their lot after dark, becomes…well? Darker. And strange. Very, very strange.

Gotta say: Y’all. This documentary left me a complete and total mess. I feel like I’ve been coming down from an LSD high in a police interrogation room, with nothing but alkaline water and Chamoy pickles for sustenance. Yeah, that was a weird description. But honey, that sentence has absolutely nothing on the mind trip that is Organ. This documentary is simultaneously intriguing, odd, terrifying, heartbreaking, and maddening. And it’s gonna be my new thing I tell people to do if I win a bet. Not because this film is bad, but because it’s an absolute endurance test that fits well with a challenge you’d force someone to do, rather than a film you’d heartily recommend. Need more from me on this? C’mon then.

Writer/director David Farrier doesn’t tell us a story, he grabs us, kicking and screaming, into the yawning abyss that is Michael Organ’s world. At first, Organ seems to be your garden variety troll, using any perceived whiff of power to harass and mistreat anyone who has the misfortune to get in his way. This isn’t a doc you can simply play in the background. Focus is required to really follow the goings-on. And that focus pulled me into the story, and the unnerving, odd dance between the two “leads”. After a half hour of watching, the level of incessant psychological fuckwittage left me feeling like I’d been psychologically attacked. 

As the doc unfolds, Farrier paints a picture of a man whose manipulative, gaslighting behavior has caused pain to many who’ve tried to call him friend. While Farrier admits Organ can be “nice if he wants to be”, many of those who used to be around Organ seem terrified when Farrier asks them to go on record. They don’t want to be quoted, fearing repercussions. As some of his former roommates have talked about being physically attacked by him? That fear is understandable. The interviews Farrier did get with individuals who knew Organ describe a manipulative, troubling man who was “frightening”, and who made their life a “torment”. They couldn’t seem to get rid of him, until it seemed that Organ moved to next person. If you’re a part of his life “[h]e doesn’t let go.” More than one individual who was on the wrong side of the man attempted suicide, one successfully. (Organ denies everything, and has threatened legal action.) 

The back-and-forth between Farrier and Organ feels like a strange variant on road rage. Like Beef in real life, but via investigative journalism rather than cars. This documentary is as fascinating as a car wreck, but twice as scary. There’s a man who seems to love hearing himself talk, versus one who’s fixated on finding answers. I don’t know how Farrier dealt with this – in fact, he’s been quoted as saying if he knew at the start how taxing this documentary would be, he wouldn’t have done it. I know that after watching this documentary, I was emotionally exhausted, and questioned my life choices for the day. I had to power nap, and then write this up. Am I calling this doc a cinematic sleep aid? Nah. It’s too creepy for that. It is taxing, mind-numbing, disturbing, and will hit you right in the psychological gut. I don’t think I can recommend Organ to any but the strongest of constitutions, as in order to tell this story, Farrier had to show us exactly what it’s like to interact with Organ…and as the film shows, that’s a helluva lot to endure.

After all that? I’m still not sure if this doc is absolutely brilliant, or a brutal waste of time. What I can say is that this film is a frightening look at a manipulative man, the human wreckage left in his wake, and the reporter who got sucked into his orbit. It is, to misquote The Bard, a film full of sound and fury, signifying nothing. And perhaps that’s the truly horrifying point of this film; energy vampires exist, and their emptiness can become a dangerous void that’ll drag you to the depths of psychic hell. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m off to cuddle with my cat, and drink the taste of this odd man out of my brain.

Come for: A touch of true crime to add to your day.
Stay for: A shocking look at how human beings can be obsessive, manipulating, and downright awful.