Tickle Torture
The newest, hottest movie out right now is Tickled. A documentary where New Zealand reporter David Farrier discovers competitive endurance tickling competitions online. All he wants to do is investigate. How could this not be interesting and exciting? Little did he know what kind of rabbit hole this would lead him into. When Farrier first contacted those involved in the tickling he was attacked not only for his sexuality but for his curiousity. Brutal words and insults that immediately warrant an R rating for the film are used to attack Farrier. He then begins to get threats from lawyers urging him to immediately stop this film he is planning on making. But I guess being a reporter when you hear legal and personal threats you just say, “I have to do this”. So on he went with the project and a few friends.
I want to try my best to set the scene for you about this bizarre, terrifying, and unnerving documentary without prominent spoilers- so I guess my main goal of this blog is to convince you to see it so I can talk to someone about it. Otherwise, I’ll have to get on Reddit or find some strange online community to join, but honestly I probably will.
Basically after initial threats and meetings with people involved in the tickling empire, Farrier decides to hop on a plane to Los Angeles and get to the bottom of this whole charade. Praying that he catches a tickling shoot while he is down there.
The videos that Farrier initially saw were usually very athletic, beefy dudes tied down to a bed with four other males on top of them tickling every part of their body. Some of them laugh and giggle, some are visibly uncomfortable and saying “stop” in between their shortness of breath.
We are only like twenty minutes into this film and already I’m planted in a seat with my notebook in hand with a stank face at the screen (I’ll reenact it for you anytime). I was so uncomfortable watching these videos and hearing people talk about their experiences. A former competitive tickler TJ calls it “a torture project” and he says that someone tried to convince him it was a “military tactic”. This is when the film takes a different turn. It’s no longer confusion and discomfort for this online world but something is truly wrong. When these people fight back against the videos being released they are threatened. Serious threats. Their families are threatened. Their careers are threatened. In TJ’s case his employer was contacted by this mysterious person that had also threatened Farrier earlier in the film.
At this moment ominous giggling is playing over a montage of tickling videos and it cuts to a shot of a car accident on the side of the road while Farrier discusses with his crew if talking about it is just making everything worse for those involved. So they try a new tactic. They find someone that runs a tickling site in Florida simply because it’s a fetish of his, a full time job. Nothing shady here — it allowed us to look into what it might be to have a tickling fetish or how it started. Then our Florida Man told us about how he found tickling on the internet in the 90s. At this point an elderly man in my theater straight up walked out. That’s how uncomfortable you can get watching the film.
One of the craziest parts of the film for me was when it started pouring rain outside of the theater. You could hear this creepy rainfall on the roof of the theater- it was so loud and so hard almost like bullets above your head. Meanwhile, the rain is happening, Farrier goes to Michigan to interview someone. I’m in Michigan. I’m praying to God that on bottom of the screen it does not say “Grand Rapids” but instead it says “Muskegon”. Not any better. The eight other people in the audience all awkwardly laugh or shudder. The entire mood shifted in my theater. You could feel the tension in the room. Rain, Michigan, scandalous story. Muskegon is here. In Western Michigan. I’ve been there. Recently. This is our backyard. We are watching a scene filmed in our back yard. And it’s not making us feel at ease. When I left the theater a woman said to me, “I think we were all waiting for someone we knew to show up on screen and speak”. She was so right. That didn’t help me with my discomfort and confusion and yes, disgust while watching the film.
After countless crazy twists and turns the intensity never stops — no matter how much I want to tell you what happens I know that I can’t! I will not spoil it. But let me just say I am visibly terrified toward the end of the film. My knees are too my chest and even though nothing is outwardly scary as in no shocking images- I still felt my heart beating quickly. My breathing is becoming more rapid and I found an excuse to write more notes in my notebook then necessary — a distraction from how the film was making me feel when I watched it.
Ultimately the film was gripping, terrifying, and completely unusual. I don’t know what Farrier was expecting when he set out to research these videos. The pacing was brilliant, the editing was solid, and the investigative journalism was top notch. I know this because in between finishing the final season of The West Wing I also watch documentaries on Netflix. Basically I’m like super knowledgeable and opinionated about documentaries, ask my friend Alex Hare. I mean I almost literally ran home after watching it to immediately write this so I could talk about it. That’s gotta say something. A simple story about tickling turned into a story about power, control, corruption, and harassment. There are no scary or graphic images, it’s purely a psychological thriller that will leave you squirming in your seat and maybe you too with awkward laughter or half smile to ease the tension between you and the screen.
Good luck. And let me know when you watch it.
