A horror film in more ways than one, Christopher Hewitt’s 17-minute Out At Night borrows its central idea from A Quiet Place (2018): a monster sensitive to sound. There is no alien activity involved this time, and instead, the emphasis falls on the despicable inhumanity of one man. Martin (Alastair G. Cumming) picks up Will (Andrew Wheildon-Dennis) at the… Continue reading Out At Night: When Supernatural And (In)Human Horror Meet
Author: Indie Shorts Mag Team
Read Between The Lines: Come For the Romance, Stay For The Personal Growth
A bouncy rom-com, Read Between The Lines is funny, textured with inside jokes, and an overall efficient entertainer. Written and directed by Adante Watts, the 14-minute film follows a college-going boy with a crush on his classmate, and the trials and tribulations of trying to ask someone out when every cell in your body wants to collapse… Continue reading Read Between The Lines: Come For the Romance, Stay For The Personal Growth
The Doll: Why A Child Sees Marriage As Escape
Elahe Esmaili’s 33-minute documentary, The Doll, on the deliberations and uncertainty over the marriage of a 14-year old Iranian girl is a gripping film with an uncanny ability to be subtle and maintain restraint, and yet pose questions for its subjects and its audience. This leads to fascinating character studies, as well as the depiction of… Continue reading The Doll: Why A Child Sees Marriage As Escape
The Trust: A Pop Culture Rich Pandemic Comedy
A 11-minute pandemic comedy, Harris Shore’s The Trust uses the ‘Zoom call’ style to unfold its comedy about a dead man and the trust he left behind. Said trust is to be read by the family attorney over a video conference to the man’s widow and son. And his CPA. The film makes snide references throughout. The… Continue reading The Trust: A Pop Culture Rich Pandemic Comedy
Farewell Symphony: A Drama About Impossible Choices, Shrouded In Music
The clash between ambition—however radical or modest—and the ties of duty is a conflict with extensive history. The options are thus: sacrifice your aspirations entirely, reach a compromise, or reach for your goals and be forever marked selfish. For the protagonist of Farewell Symphony, Yang Yang, it is a choice that haunts the majority of her adult life, and one she… Continue reading Farewell Symphony: A Drama About Impossible Choices, Shrouded In Music
Fred: A Psychological Thriller Like No Other
fred ends unexpectedly. Open-endedly. Alexander Jeremy’s 29-minute film focuses equally on being both an experience and a story with a coherent plot. The two priorities bounce off of each other instead of working against each other for dominance. Instead, one enriches the other. The story of a woman (Susie Kimnell) grieving the death of her fiance,… Continue reading Fred: A Psychological Thriller Like No Other
Polaroid: Revenge Drama Dipped In Mystery And Megalomania
Dante Aubain’s Polaroid takes Patrick Bateman, and everything he represents, perhaps even more than that, and makes it anew, this time allowing the other side a spot at the table as well. In some ways, it is the familiar revenge drama, but looked at through the lens of American Psycho (as it is intended to be), the subtext comes… Continue reading Polaroid: Revenge Drama Dipped In Mystery And Megalomania
Bound: The Unsettling Power Of People Who Only Look Harmless
On the surface, Claire lives a thoroughly domestic life. Pictures of her family line the shelves. She plays solitaire in an empty, albeit homey house. From the looks of it, she leads a content life. Sure, she snaps at her family when they call her, and she resolutely refuses to move out of the house… Continue reading Bound: The Unsettling Power Of People Who Only Look Harmless
Change of Course: On The Profound Powers Of Art During Grief
Andreas Ortner’s fourth wall breaking pandemic short, Richtungswechsel or Change of Course, is a 9-minute film set in the picturesque village of Stall, Austria, where the pandemic has not wreaked the same havoc that the rest of the world has had to face. Two aspects of the human condition, personified, debate over the state of the world and the… Continue reading Change of Course: On The Profound Powers Of Art During Grief
Macy’s Goes To War: Bite-sized Satire On History
Duncan B. Putney’s 5-minute short, Macy’s Goes To War, dressed as an archival newsreel, is a satire set in 1942 about the considerable contribution of rubber by the famed Mr Macy of Macy’s reputation. Short as it is, the film’s humour is enjoyable, what with the juxtaposition of war with huge balloons of beloved cartoon characters.… Continue reading Macy’s Goes To War: Bite-sized Satire On History