As necessary as the Tubi platform is for a movie lover such as myself, however commendable the Fox-owned service is in providing an outlet for self-financed indie filmmakers, Tubi's digital coffers nonetheless require an occasional digital Drain-O to clean the stream of ineffective vanity films clogging our screens before we get to the watchable stuff.

One of those watchable films is this stunning debut from a Southeast Texas filmmaker who worked in the art departments for Miramax, Showtime, TBS, and Universal (his most high-profile contributions under those shingles are 12 Strong and Blade Runner 2049). (Yes, that resume inspired my watch.)

Calvin Welch's previous three shorts (between 3 to 7 minutes) are worlds where characters travel the esoteric wooden darkness: a technology, mythology, and nostalgic state of confusion that leads to this: his feature debut feature (60-minute running time; shot on a $20,000 micro-budget).

Anglerfish - as with Dennis Hooper's The Last Movie (1971),George Englund's "electric western" Zachariah (1971),and Alex Cox's Walker (1987) before it - is an unconventional film. Each film is a time warp; stories rife with anachronisms as American traditions disappear by way of man's technological advancements; a "future" foretold in Sam Peckinpah's The Wild Bunch (1969) as his band of aging outlaws stared down the steam fumes of the First Industrial Revolution. In Walker, although it's an 1800s period piece: the characters of the Nicaraguan-set western use automatic rifles, reusable Zippo lighters, and drink from coke bottles; there's modern cars on the streets and helicopters overhead.

In a Welchian 1906: The world is analogously out-of-sync as it faces a murky, undisclosed apocalyptic event that plunged the land in darkness; a world where cicadas fill the air, books are eschewed, the too-late sounds of the Civil War (1861 - 1865) echo the night, and yet: modern radio is embraced.

Where in the hell - or more to the point, when - are we?

This Welchian-verse forgets - as a film score unfitting the Little House on the Prairie-era surroundings, swirls - Gugliemo Marconi invented radio in 1985 and it wasn't until 1906 that Reginald A. Fessenden became the first person to complete a successful, public wireless broadcast. The first commercial broadcast hadn't occurred until November 1920, with commercial home receivers not sold until September of that year.

Yet, Jonathan and Mary, as part of their nightly ritual after their dinner of boiled potatoes, fire up a post-1920 radio set - in a remote wood cabin with no electricity where they use a wood-burning stove with a tea kettle and lantern light to fashion wooden crucifixes - to dance to the sounds of 21st century EDM in an upended, Second Industrial Revolution.

As with Robin Hardy's The Wicker Man (1973) - itself rife with cultural clashes - Anglerfish - as with Welch's aforementioned shorts - is a folk horror piece (the wonderful Blood on Satan's Claw, The Dunwich Horror, Eyes of Fire, and Witchfinder General are your go-to examples): a journey through all of the dark old things; of the unknown corners our mind where traditional nostalgia misfires across one's synapses to the new, digital norms - dislodging witches and white-glowing ghosts (or angels?),and static-filled nightmares from another time in a purgatory of penance.

Anglerfish isn't a normal film intended for the normal Tubi streamer. The film's logline: "Under the dark sky of an Apocalypse, a young couple's nightly rituals are disrupted by a mysterious woman burying her husband by the stream" may not engage you press that big red streaming button. However, not pressing and not using those 60 minutes to watch Anglerfish is the bigger waste of time.

This is storytelling at its most engaging from the new-normal voice of Calvin Welch. I am grateful for the Tubi blessing to have watched it.

1906 and this couple lives in the woods, miles from the nearest town, yet listen to their radio each night. So I figure they must have somehow tapped into Nicola Telsa's wireless electricity. That's the only logical possibility. While listening to the radio they do some sort of holistic, mind spiraling, new wave dance, followed by flashing lights, and this goes on for a very, very, long time. Then there is some wood chopping and a little dialogue. Each picking apart a small potato, as if near starvation, while completely ignoring two beautiful loaves of bread on the table. Then the radio is turned on again and the dancing starts followed by flashing lights, once again lasting a long time. Then a woman shows up and joins in on the weird dancing and then sleeps on the floor. I don't think I exposed any spoilers, because nothing happens. You might ask why I continued watching. All I can say is, I thought something might happen.

I kept watching and watching to try and figure this movie out.

If you're looking for a horror movie, this isn't it.

Very intentionally slow, and I think the acting was deliberately dry.

Lots of bizarre symbolism in this movie was hard to interpret.

A couple in 1906 living out in the middle of nowhere take in a strange woman burying her husband in the creek. Then she seemingly disappears.

Although they use oil lamps, they apparently have electricity, since they have a large radio which never seems to pull in any stations, and what looks like a light bulb outside their house.

Also, the man lights his hand-rolled cigarette with a Zippo-style lighter, which wasn't invented until 1933.

Lots of strange sequences that made little sense. But I didn't hate it.