A blinded soldier wanders through a psychedelic fever dream directed by a rock star. Buckle up.
Pillbox tells the story of a couple who are forced to part when the man heads overseas to war. The opening sequence boasts the simple black-and-white aesthetic of early cinema – complete with title cards – but after a barrage of harrowing newsreel footage, the wounded soldier finds himself in a psychedelic fantasyland where he parties with a bejeweled king and his subjects. But after insulting the king, the soldier is blinded, banished and forced to wander through a surreal landscape as he searches for redemption and tries to find his way home.
Direction
Billy Corgan and Linda Strawberry's eye-popping visual audacity.
Cinematography
Seamless morph from silent era grain to saturated psychedelia.
Score
Smashing Pumpkins frontman brings his signature mournful grandeur.
Director
Linda Strawberry
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Released during the Smashing Pumpkins' 'Shiny and Oh So Bright' era, this represents Corgan's long obsession with Victorian melancholy and prog-rock concept albums finally breaking into visual form.
The 41-minute runtime deliberately mirrors classic double-album side lengths—Corgan originally conceived this as a visual companion to unreleased Pumpkins material.
US
