From the outset, Stinkhorn feels like a psychedelic trip. Between the mixture of traditional western staples, from music, language, and sound effects, and the outlandish premise of the short film, the audience is presented with an atmosphere of chaos, humour, and a set of strangely captivating characters.

The second film in the Fairy Fantastic! series, Stinkhorn tells the tale of a blacksmith, Dusty, her paramour, Blaze, and her two apprentices, Pinky and Cassidy. At night, Blaze sneaks into Pinky and Cassidy’s bedrooms to transform Pinky into a horse using a magical bridle, before riding horse-Pinky across the mining town of Stinkhorn.

When Cassidy hatches a plan to stop Blaze from turning his friend into a horse nightly by switching their beds, Cassidy finds himself transformed and ridden across the town instead. When he manages to free himself from the magic bridle, he is able to trap Blaze, high after a night of doing mushrooms with his friends, and force him into the bridle instead.

After being adorned with horseshoes by Cassidy, Blaze returns to his human form and crawls into bed alongside Dusty. The following morning, in an almost bizarre twist, Dusty discovers Blaze’s new horseshoe hands and is entranced. As the short film comes to its end, the narrator gleefully explains that after that day, Dusty began to ride Blaze in his horse form nightly.

Whilst Stinkhorn’s story itself is absurd enough to keep the audience watching, the unique mixture of live action and animated drawings creates a visually engaging film, befitting the psychedelic western theme that is well worth the watch.