Electric Malady (2022)

Electric Malady (2022). 1h 24m

“This is an absolutely terrible film, and now joins that doc about the German u0026quot;free diveru0026quot; who crippled himself as one of the two worst documentaries Iu0026#39;ve ever seen.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eIt was made by, and with the participation, of people who are utterly credulous and unquestioning about this unfortunate young manu0026#39;s predicament. Imagine, if you will, exactly the same documentary being made about someone who claims to be terrorized by fairies that only he can see, and that the only way he can protect himself is to hide under a blanket. Would anyone make a deeply sympathetic film about him? Of course not. Heu0026#39;d be regarded as the mentally ill person he is, and urged to get psychiatric treatment. The two cases are exactly the same; the only difference is that, while most people agree that fairies do not exist, most people are also grossly ignorant about the science and engineering of whatu0026#39;s broadly termed here u0026quot;radiationu0026quot;. For example, the doctor who visits him compares the u0026quot;old, natural radiation from the earthu0026quot; to u0026quot;modern radiationu0026quot; as though theyu0026#39;re of the same kind, clearly demonstrating that he doesnu0026#39;t understand the difference between ionizing radiation and electromagnetic radiation. So best not to take his word for anything.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eAnd we are shown a number of inconsistencies that further indicate that our subject has failed to learn about the things that, were his malady real, he could do to further minimize his exposure. For example, why would he listen to music from CDs, when CD players contain high-speed digital circuitry used to read data from the disks and convert it back down into sound? His parents have a turntable, and listening u0026quot;analogu0026quot; to LPs would completely eliminate the CD player as a source of EMR. (Before you ask: The Fairport Convention and Lindisfarne CDs he listens to were both originally released on vinyl, and for anything that wasnu0026#39;t or isnu0026#39;t, playing a cassette tape copy of a CD would also eliminate the CD as an EMR source.) Also, at the end of the film, we learn that he now has a phone via optical fiber, and the same argument applies: A fiber-capable phone (interface) contains complex, high-speed digital circuitry… where an old-timey POTS (Plain Old Telephone Service) phone like your parents and grandparents had is a completely passive device that contains no active electronics generating high-frequency signals. Those are both dead giveaways that his sensitivity is imagined, because in both cases heu0026#39;s chosen the high-frequency-EMR-generating option over the one that isnu0026#39;t.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eAll of this means that the filmmaker ignored her responsibility as a documentarian to find the facts, opting instead for sympathetic agitprop with a lilting soundtrack. There is no evidence that u0026quot;electrosensitivityu0026quot; exists, and this is no different than any other paranormal phenomenon in that proving (or disproving) it via controlled experiments is a well-understood thing. So whaddaya got? A sick man who waves a little buzzing box around as u0026quot;proofu0026quot; that u0026quot;thereu0026#39;s something thereu0026quot;? Trust me, that means nothing. There are always hucksters and charlatans ready to cash in on peopleu0026#39;s gullibility and desperation, and being able to sell a little hokum meter for a thousand bucks is a strong motivation – no different, really, from those goofy Scientologistsu0026#39; E-meters.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eSo mark this down as a documentary that remains to be made by serious people who are ready to bring in scientists, engineers, psychiatrists, and paranormal debunkers to provide the background and expertise necessary to place the story in its proper context.”