My Brain at 11:37pm: Visceral Visions

*My Brain at 11:37pm: Visceral Visions* is the fourth feature film from Mike Barkhoff, released November 4th, 2022. The film, which stars Barkhoff, was also written and directed by him. It features cameos from Sarah Kellysen and Harry Scott.

## Plot

Eddie Cobbler is overcoming a fresh break up, and imagines his past romance with his girlfriend in a series of metaphors whilst dreaming. Of these include him trying to save her as an undercover agent on a mission, followed by a man trying to receive a pass code on a date for an undeclared use.

Eddie pictures himself in instances of himself being alone also, such as a sequence where he adapts a killer persona while wearing pink Converse shoes, one where he finds a penny on the ground before witnessing a monster who tried to murder him, and one where he is attacked by and unseen figure with a knife whilst eating cereal.

Confused with the depth of these dreams, Eddie awakens in a confused state and looks around his life in the world based in reality. Eddie falls asleep and quickly ends up in the midst of a dream fueled by reality far from his own - he envisions a bad version of himself trying to attack himself. Eddie starts to try to search for a light switch, thinking that he is having a lucid dream.

Eddie manages to get to the closest dream he can to reality after suffering through segments of obscene circumstances. He discovers that his world is being controlled by another variant of himself. The variant has cameras set up watching everything on computer monitors, and the light switches appear all at once on the wall. Eddie's variant self reminds him of his reality, one where he is writing a film entitled "Burnt" wherein the plot revolves around his breakup. The reality based Eddie replies to him "So, what now?".

## Cast

Mike Barkhoff as Eddie Cobbler

Sarah Kellysen as Female

Harry Scott as Theater Worker & Teacher

## Production

Barkhoff had the idea for the film in 2021 when he found himself being able to distinguish when he was dreaming. The earliest scene for the film was captured in 2021, around the time Barkhoff filmed the first season of Living Free. Barkhoff held off on filming the movie, as he wanted to allowed his third feature film, Doppelgang to differ from the fourth film by distancing them with more time.

In January 2022, Barkhoff went through a recent life change with transitioning his career alongside filmmaking. In a period of five weeks between jobs, Barkhoff managed to film this. Originally hesitant on working on films during this period, Barkhoff had the sudden urge to begin production when he was inspired by the recently released music video "Gasoline" by The Weeknd. Barkhoff attributes his sudden urge to make the film as being due to his trying to quit nicotine during this timeframe, also.

It was the first film of Barkhoff's career where someone other than himself contributed the entirety of the music. He worked with Piero D'agostino on this film, as well as 2022's "Knock" before inducting him into Live Free.

## Promotion

In June 2022, Live Free announced a film titled "Burnt" from Eddie Cobbler, with Barkhoff going as far as making a fake profile on CreateMore.

The film features five segments that were each episodes of Horror Fest Season 3. The month before this film, Season 3 released, an entire four years following Season 2's release and the show's initial cancellation. The series was revived following it's rerelease on Drakoloid Adult Zone in October of 2021. Barkhoff originally had no intent of using the third season to announce his fourth movie, or to include them in the movie.

## Reception

The film was met with critical acclaim, but it did fare only 500 streams in the first twenty-four hours, less than any of Barkhoff's three previous films. This followed a recent surge in viewership to Live Free, which Barkhoff theorizes as being due to Inanimate and their sudden jump to new territory.

## Analysis

The film has been theorized as being a parallel to Doppelgang, focusing on another artist who encounters similar occurrences and mindsets, but imaging them in a dream.

As the film's first promotional campaign included it's film-within-the-film title being mentioned ("Burnt"), it has also been considered this film is a deep study on the production of films and what creators go through while they adjust to new phases of life. As has been examined, Barkhoff created the film during a point of unemployment while quitting nicotine.

The cameos of the film have been suggested to focus on a mimick of Barkhoff's real life newfound friendships, potentially suggesting that the newfound people in your life typically meet you in your dreams significantly.

Barkhoff revealed that the film was about "gratitude" and attributed it to his cat being the main source of inspiration. As revealed by Barkhoff, the film "played out" in his head when he woke up around 11:37 one night and realized that he wouldn't have the cat he did if it weren't for his ex-girlfriend, whom he had recently been wishing would've never been in his life.

Due to this, it has been suggested that the film is a metaphor for someone trying to avoid their mentality finally being forced to confront it in the form of dreams.