Film short/video review: Neurosis with The Firekeeper Alliance "We Are Torn Wide Open, Mirror Deep" (Neurot Recordings) by Dave Wolff

Artists: Neurosis with The Firekeeper Alliance

Location: Oakland, California

Country: USA

Genre: Post metal, sludge

Film short/video: We Are Torn Wide Open, Mirror Deep

Format: Digital

Label: Neurot Recordings

Release date: March 20, 2026

Neurosis’ collaboration with the Firekeeper Alliance is reportedly a big project involving filmmakers, actors, storytellers, production assistants, creative collaborators, a soundtrack and a director. It almost sounds like a crew behind a small independent movie, which probably isn’t too far from the truth.

Hours of travel, filming, and editing transformed an idea into a powerful cinematic tribute to the environment and resilient spirit of the Blackfoot Indians, also known as the Niitsítapi. The Blackfeet, from the Northern Great Plains, are nomadic bison hunters and trout fishermen with a lineage dating back 18,000 years. To preserve their cultural identity they helped form a nonprofit organization with Charlie Speicher, promoting community connection and addressing mental wellness and suicide prevention among Native American tribes.

Building an opportunity to represent their history and perspective with an untitled short film, the organization met with Neurosis who contributed songs from “An Undying Love for a Burning World.” Conceptualized by Speicher and the Firekeeper Alliance, with Steve Von Till and Robert Hall, and directed by Bobby Cochran and Jason Nix, the film opens with a wide panoramic shot of the Blackfeet Nation Indian Reservation, viewed through the perspective of the Blackfeet’s ancestors.

After this establishing shot, the film tells the story of four Browning Public School students haunted by an evil spirit that appears and disappears periodically, following each of them for unknown reasons. These sequences are accompanied by Neurosis' songs “We Are Torn Wide Open” and “Mirror Deep.” A brief shot before the soundtrack suggests that a pair or shamans or elders are aware of the spirit’s appearance, but the spirit’s purpose is as mysterious to the students as to us.

But for some reason, the spirit doesn't appear to be friendly. At least not at first? The entity’s appearances and disappearances are intentionally vague, with frequent surreal camera shots designed to heighten the mystery of the unfolding narrative. The songs from Neurosis’s new album complement the disorientation and confusion experienced by the main characters as they are pursued by the spirit, whose motives remain largely unknown throughout the film.

Sim Schildt, who also served as production designer, dramatizes the spirit with a palpable sense of menace as it first appears in the students’ dreams and then haunts them in the waking world. Each time it faces one of the students it seems to induce a trance-like state, effectively conveyed through consistent camera work that heightens the mystery and amplifies the growing sense of dread leading to the finale.

I don’t want to spoil too much if you haven’t seen it yet, but the film explores themes of belonging and connection as alternatives to mental illness and suicide. The release of the film coincides with the July 23-26 Fire In The Mountains festival in Montana; for a complete list of everyone involved in the making of this film, visit the official YouTube link. –Dave Wolff

Neurosis lineup:

Aaron Turner: Guitars, vocals

Steve Von Till: Guitars, vocals

Noah Landis: Synthesizers, backing vocals

Dave Edwardson: Bass, backing vocals

Jason Roeder: Drums