Masking Threshold

Audiology is finally presented with some accuracy in a work of fiction and it's in....a horror film.  Guess I should be grateful.   My profession and its science historically has been portrayed laughably in most movies and television programs.  Co-writer/director Johannes Grenzfurthner's 2021 effort MASKING THRESHOLD considers the plight of a young man suffering from tinnitus perceptions.  Ones disruptive enough for him to withdraw from college, avoid his friends, and even force him to give up his beloved cat.  He also suffers a deadening IT job, though of late has taken some PTO or FMLA or something and has embarked on an experiment in his home to get a better understanding of his debilitating condition, and how to manage it. 

There's no cure.  His doctors have failed him.  Recommendations for psychotherapy are an affront, akin to voodoo in his eyes.  As phony to him as belief in God. He certainly won't bother with those insufferable support groups.  His mother suggests he try Gingko Biloba and essential oils.  

He does not explicitly mention encounters with audiologists or attempts at sound therapy, which could've added another dimension to the proceedings.  I have plenty of patients who could've supplied Grenzfurthner with anecdotes.

MASKING THRESHOLD, framed in a first person account that often plays like a YouTube video in which we never see the narrator's face (mostly just his hands and Stormtrooper T-shirt), spends its first hour documenting the man's hypotheses, and his trials to discover how sounds of household objects can change the pitch and intensity of his tinnitus.  Also, how differently it sounds as he moves through rooms, and into the outside world.  Being around others makes it worse.  He sounds like the introvert who explains how people sap his energy rather than stoke it.  

Our protagonist also describes his co-workers, the girl across the street who visits him, a seeming ally on the Internet, and his ex-boyfriend.  And his poor, well meaning mother.   His frustration grows when he submits his data and it is rejected by the medical community and ridiculed by online trolls. 

It's rather mesmerizing.  The way a fascinating lecture on your favorite topic might be.  The visuals, often in extreme close-up, are sufficiently disturbing yet our intellect is ignited enough to forget that we're watching a horror film.  And Grenzfurthner gradually builds toward that last half hour, as the experiments begin to involve living things and our experimenter forgoes hygiene and sleep as he obsessively attempts to replicate his findings, taking him all the way down to the cellular level.  Things get grisly, and the narrator's dark sense of humor only sharpens.  

Quite the obscure little indie, MASKING THRESHOLD certainly counts as one of the most unique and disturbing films I've seen.  I learned of it from an audiology page on Facebook, with most of the audiologists firmly stating that they would not be seeing it.  "I couldn't even make it through the trailer", saith one.  While I wish there was more audiological discussion within,  that particular discipline is merely a jumping off point to an abyss of despair, abetted by the protagonist's already present feelings of isolation associated with his homosexuality.  

I feel the film gets a bit carried away in its final moments (and during an audio only bit during the end credits), even feeling a bit rushed, but MASKING THRESHOLD is an experiment that is well worth observing for resilient viewers.  Maybe watch it before (and certainly not during) dinner.

P.S.- To many first year graduate students in an Au.D. program, the title of the film itself may evoke a specific brand of anxiety and even terror.

P.P.S. - Viewers who live in Florida will have a few knowing chuckles.