Eggshells 1971

Adam Hawkes
Oct 8, 2024
1 min read

Updated: Jan 10

https://video.wixstatic.com/video/3ca58d_ab5ca69d86c7411b8fb67c85f04b0211/1080p/mp4/file.mp4

Restoration details

Sourced from a 16mm to 35mm blow-up print, the material exhibits noticeable colour fade and significant age- and handling-related wear, including prominent tramline scratches, flickering debris, and other surface-level damage. While restoration from a source as close as possible to the original camera negative is always preferable, modern tools such as PFClean demonstrate that excellent results can still be achieved, even when working with heavily faded elements many generations removed from the original.

Film details

Toby Hooper’s Eggshells (1971) is a loose, experimental countercultural film that captures the drifting, communal spirit of Austin’s hippie scene at the turn of the 1970s. Set largely within a shared house, the film follows a group of young adults as they lounge, argue, perform music, and engage in fragmented conversations, all while an unseen presence seems to stir beneath the home’s foundations. More mood piece than narrative, Eggshells blends improvisation, psychedelic visuals, and avant-science-fiction elements to explore themes of alienation, communication breakdown, and generational unease. Though far removed stylistically from Hooper’s later horror classics, the film offers an intriguing early glimpse of his fascination with domestic spaces as sites of hidden menace and social decay.