You know that friend who swears their acid trip unlocked the secrets of the universe—only to realize they’ve been staring at a pizza for three hours? Heroic Dose is that story, but with better cinematography and Jena Malone laughing at you.
The Trip Report:
Filmmaker Dugan Gundelfinger (a pseudonym as trippy as the plot) delivers his “opus”—a hyper-stylized, semi-autobiographical account of the time he took way too much LSD at a dinner party. The result? A genre-blurring short that’s equal parts Fear and Loathing and The Office after a tab kicks in.
“A genre-bending comedic retelling of one man’s psychedelic-induced mystical journey… or something like that.” —YouTube’s hilariously vague intro
Why It Works:
- The Cast: Leighton Lovejoy, Rachael Leigh Cook, and Demorge Brown turn a dinner-table anecdote into a surrealist roast session.
- The Vibe: Imagine if Terrence McKenna hosted a Drunk History episode—complete with animated detours and a score by Boreta (of The Glitch Mob).
- The Punchline: Gundelfinger’s “ahh” sound theory (you’ll know it when you hear it) is the kind of dumb-deep insight that almost makes you want to try psychedelics. Almost.
This isn’t just a stoner lark. Beneath the giggles, Heroic Dose nails the cosmic joke of ego dissolution—how the profound and the ridiculous collide when your brain checks out.
Psychedelic comedies aren’t new (Across the Universe, The Beach Bum), but shorts like Heroic Dose thrive in the TikTok era: bite-sized, chaotic, and unafraid to laugh at its own existential crisis.
If you’ve ever wondered what happens when someone “heroic doses” at a dinner party—or just need proof that ego death can be funny—press play. Then maybe hide your LSD.
Watch Heroic Dose on Short of the Week—and follow Dugan’s next trip @dugangundelfinger.
