Have you ever seen a movie and immediately after think, “What the hell did I just watch?” Well, that’s undoubtedly what I feel after having watched In Bright Axiom. However, in this case, I believe writer/director Spencer McCall and writers Geordie Aiken, Farouz Gipson, and Wylie Herman were going for exactly that reaction. This film that could loosely be described as a documentary, on paper seems pretty straightforward. Wealthy San Francisco man Jeff Hull decides to organize some “experiences” under the guise of a secret society called The House of Latitude. A combination of Burning Man, Meow Wolf, and Sleep No More, The House of Latitude lures the curious amongst Bay area artists and professionals into a world separate from our own that exists within it simultaneously.
“The House of Latitude lures the curious amongst Bay area artists and professionals into a world separate from our own…”
According to The Latitude Society, we exist within something referred to as Entity Prime that is ruled over by a group called The Clerisy. The agenda of Latitude is to Entity Flow..there’s also Entity Flux, which is what you exist in as you begin to question your reality and approach House of Latitude. Entity Flow is described in one of Latitude’s praxis’ as the water inside of a bowl, with the bowl being Entity Prime. This is not the only jargon we encounter. There’s also an interdimensional being called Quas, another one called MegaQuas and something else known as a Kith…or maybe Quas is a Kith? Point being, House of Latitude sounds a little Scientology meets Burning Man, doesn’t it? It only makes sense that the head of the organization is a wealthy Silicon Valley guy who is seen for most of the movie dressed up as Max from Where The Wild Things Are.
Moving on, within the running time of In Bright Axiom, we see some of what it might’ve been like to join the secret society originally. There are key cards that lead you to mysterious places, special coins to play an arcade game, and even a retreat to a house in Mendocino, California, which as one member points out, is a place rife with cult activity. Once you go on the bizarre journey to get to the endpoints of these exercises, there’s a party where you join the rest of your ilk. Additionally, we see a side plot that involves fictional Professor Walter Kinley (Geordie Aitken) going on a journey to find whatever the point of all this House of Latitude stuff is, and thusly showing us the groups mythology.
"…he exist within something referred to as Entity Prime that is ruled over by a group called The Clerisy"
Excellent movie, with Shambhala warrior qualities about it, in my opinion.