VOTD: 'The Batman Complex'

Probably all of us have entertained fantasies at some point about becoming one of our favorite superheroes, whether as children playing with action figures or adults watching the latest comic book blockbuster. Generally, it's just harmless fun — but take that drive to the extreme and things can get really weird, as seen in today's Video of the Day. The Batman Complex is a (sadly) fake film trailer about about a paranoid schizophrenic who comes to believe that he is actually Batman. Or something. Watch it after the jump.

[via The Daily What]

The trailer pulls clips from Christopher Nolan's Batman films, Inception, and The Machinist to suggest a compelling psychological thriller — one that I would totally see, if only it were real. It looks like an imaginative spin on Batman, possibly one that deals with his place in pop culture in a similar way to what Watchmen did with superheroes in general. I'm also digging the creepy, off-kilter vibe. It doesn't look like a horror movie, but it's disturbing nonetheless.

Creator themanbatman had this to say about the trailer on his YouTube page:

[T]he gist of the idea revolves around a few fun topics, mainly the whole "what is real?" train of thought, and also every fans desire, deep down or upfront, to be Batman at least once in their lives. LOL. And so, I tried to craft a story where we see what happens when someone takes their dream of being Batman a little bit too far. An idea, after all, is a truly resilient parasite. ;)

While some of it is still left a bit ambiguous (both unintentionally and intentionally – while there's only so much that can be strung together, I often like to leave a little bit open so as to see what fellow fans are able to imagine/create)... I wanted to focus more on the character aspects (and a bit of the tragedy as well), and attempt to move past the initial shock of the psychological twist. One aspect I tried to hint at was the paralleling descent of both Bruce and Cobb. As Cobb and the team go deeper into Bruce's mind, they start to encounter the truly dark issues that his subconscious houses. As a result, Cobb himself gets caught up in the obsession of all that lingers in the mind of a Batman. There are a couple fun things in there that are best left to surprise, but all in all, I'm relatively happy with how it turned out. It's fairly fast paced and doesn't leave much room to breath, which helps amplify the tension I think. But that's just me.

Discuss: Would you see this movie?