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Set in a post-apocalyptic future where, apparently, a disease has wiped out all emotion and people now live off a drug called “the drip.” Claire has been living in the outskirts of decimated Yerba City, reliving memories of her and Freddie Mercury (or a guy who looks like Freddie Mercury) before the disaster. Needing some sort of closure, Claire heads into the city, which is now one giant drug den, with hundreds of doped-up homeless-types being administered constant fixes, aided by “angels”, who are mindless drones whose only purpose is to serve without question.

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While in Yerba, Claire hooks up with Billy Zane look-alike Miles, the last remaining security officer, unaddicted but highly unstable, who takes her on a quest through the ruins of the city to find Freddie Mercury, ending in a well-to-do but ultimately decayed area where Claire has to learn to deal with her past and, even worse, her present. There’s no future about it.

Equal parts Alphaville and THX-1138, with a slight, surreal splash of Zardoz thrown in for good measure, Numb is a good film that constantly straddles the line between meaningful and meaningless, prophetic and pretentious. Shot in stark black and white, it’s contrasting, brightly colored memories of the good old days that are interspersed within are extremely jarring and, at time, overused. But as Claire explores the city, it becomes a nightmarish vision of the future, and a wholly believable one at that. To see the rows of near-dead attached to “the drip” is a haunting image, and the final sequences at the Tiburon community show how far-reaching the consequences of the future have reached. It’s all creepy and very unnerving.

That’s probably the best way to describe Numb on whole, actually: creepy and unnerving. But, for the most part, worth the trip. Literally.

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