Tickled

New Zealand TV journalist David Farrier's light-hearted report on an online curiosity dubbed "Competitive Endurance Tickling" takes him on an unexpectedly sinister pathway, which he has brilliantly captured in this feature documentary. The internet footage shows athletic young men tickling a giggling compadre who is shackled to a bed. It's funny at first, but although everyone is clothed there's a definite a fetishistic aspect to this. Intrigued, Farrier wants to know more, but the site producers swiftly bombard him with legal threats and shocking homophobic invective. Thus begins a journey into the murky environs of the internet and the toxic individuals who live there, moving inexorably from laughably odd to deeply unsettling. With startling moments at every turn, this is a genuine jaw-dropper, a classic piece of investigative film-making as Farrier and co-director Dylan Reeve display tenacity and fortitude in penetrating a web of lies, manipulation and tickling. You just could not make this up.