The Centrifuge Brain Project
is a 2011 German Mockumentary Fantasy Short Film written and directed by Till Nowak. It is presented as a documentary about a scientist at the Institute for Centrifugal Research named Dr. Nick Laslowicz and his attempts to investigate how centrifugal force can improve cognitive function by building strange, surreal, and physics-defying amusement park rides. It uses realistic CGI to create these seemingly real yet impossible rides.
Tropes:
- Absurdly Long Wait: One of the rides is fourteen hours long, meaning that any of its riders won't be able to get off for fourteen hours. This led to some riders falling asleep on the ride and missing the exit, having to ride it another fourteen hours.
- Amusement Park of Doom: The rides created by Dr. Laslowicz are implied to have injured or even killed some of its riders.
- Artistic License – Physics: None of the rides could exist in real life and defy the laws of gravity and physics. The film uses this breaking of the laws of gravity to make the rides appear unnerving and strange.
- Bizarrchitecture: All of the rides are extremely strange and break the laws of physics.
- Centrifugal Gravity: The rides utilize centrifugal force in attempts to facilitate mental development.
- Dissonant Serenity: During the documentary, Dr. Laslowicz indifferently brushes aside any accidents caused by the contraptions by claiming that if there is any error it is in the laws of physics.
- Hellevator: The Steam Pressure Catapult is an elevator ride that stretches out far too high into the sky and somehow splits into multiple paths that arc back upside-down into the floor. Each set of seats goes in a random path, which is said to cause the riders to review their life goals.
- Horror Comedy: The film blends horror and comedy through its rides that are both disturbing and funny.
- Mad Scientist: Dr. Laslowicz obsesses over using amusement park rides to improve the human mind, despite his rides being dangerous and possibly leading to deaths.
- Noodle Incident: Multiple times throughout the film, Dr. Laslowicz mentions some of the experiments having gone horribly wrong, but we never hear exactly what happened.
- Surreal Horror: The rides appear very unnatural and surreal, causing them to appear terrifying.
- Uncanny Valley: A rare mechanical variant with the various bizarre and unsafe amusement part rides. They look familiar and nostalgic at first glance until they suddenly move in unexpected ways or the video pans up to show that they're far bigger than such a ride should be, all while Dr. Laslowicz speaks matter-of-factly about these machines stimulating the brain in such a way that a mysterious "enlightenment" is achieved. As the film goes on and the rides become more and more dangerous, it becomes increasingly apparent that the "enlightenment" the researchers are looking for is death.
