Watch: Joker Fan Film “The Laughing Man” (NSFW)

Check out The Laughing Man below which references Scott Snyder’s “Death of the Family” Batman comic and takes place in a psychiatric facility where a new, unidentified arrival is being questioned. Viewers are taken on a tense excursion into brutal, bloody territory as the dialogue unfurls into a high-stakes role reversal. 

With no fingerprints or identification, the strange man presents himself as a new patient—whom the resident psychiatrist isn’t quite sure how to assess. As the psychiatrist tries to pin down the man’s identity and motive for admitting himself to the facility, the viewers are taken on a tense excursion into brutal territory as the dialogue unfurls into a high-stakes role reversal. A study in mayhem, the Hallivis Brothers’ short takes the superhero out of the equation, instead highlighting the anti-hero whose disturbed mental states often lay the foundation of iconic comic book narratives.

“With such an iconic character, we felt a big duty to flesh out just how disturbed the Joker’s mind is,” explain the Hallivis Brothers. The duo rose to the challenge by deftly combining live-action and stop-motion sequences into one perfectly disturbing package, and assembled a cast and crew that includes Zach Avery as the title character, Whitney Able (Monsters, All the Boys Love Mandy Lane) as Quinn, Beau Billingslea (Star Trek Into Darkness, Castle) as Dr Hawtin, Hugo Villasenor taking the reigns on prosthetics and makeup, and American Film Institute graduate, Eli Arenson, rounding out the team as cinematographer.