So Who Is The Dog Killer?

I watched 'Under the Silver Lake' (2019) years ago, and decided to re-watch it now since it's on MUBI. I'm not re-watching it for Andrew Garfield or Riley Keough. I initially found it utterly confusing and decided not to waste brain cells on deciphering it. People gave it an average of a 3.3/5 rating. Hahahaha. Now, I want to. I'm trying to look for the undercurrents of conspiracy theories put forth in the storyline. 

It's such a cool surrealist neo-noire black comedy plus mystery. David Robert Mitchell put so much symbolism and comments into the film that I had to re-watch and cross check it against reviews and explainers on Youtube. 

Sure, it's set in Silver Lake, Los Angeles in 2011. It's a critique on Hollywood and show business, 'male gaze', exploitation of women, sub cultures, subliminal messages in advertising and media. But exactly how it was done, is absolutely brilliant. The Copiale Cipher mentioned as a running headline on television news in the show, the code written as graffiti on a bathroom wall as Sam (Andrew Garfield) barfs in the toilet, morse code on signboards, et cetera. 

Then we get graphics on tees that decode to reveal it to say 'BWAR THE DOG KILLER', which was something first scene showed as writing on a glass window. What is that parrot all about? Daniel Netzel has got a wonderful 27-minute explainer on it. 

I jumped into rabbit holes on Reddit, sub-Reddits, Quora, Medium, Substack, and such. I was like, am I watching a film on pause to try to decipher all these? I wasn't watching the actors, I was looking at the venues, walls, floors, clothes, paintings, and everything else. Referencing and using the Copiale Cipher wasn't enough, they even put in the Hobo Code. I felt like I gotta decode codes within a coded film! 

They made up a 'Cult of the Whale'. But I know Vietnam's Vung Tau and Danang have a Whale Festival in September that's nothing like a cult although there're parades and all to commemorate traditional folk culture and honouring the fishermen and seafarers. There's the 'Owl's Kiss' that runs off the owl perched in the corner of the US dollar bill. Is it? Hahaha. Go jump into this rabbit hole. 

It's convoluted for sure. It felt like we're watching Sam's sanity fade away as he starts living in a fantasy. As he turns increasingly nocturnal and despondent, he's obviously struggling with deteriorating mental health Is Sam actually the dog killer?