Projection: A Pedigreed Horror Flick with Psychological and Slasher Features

Ari Groobman’s Projection builds itself on the fresh memory of trauma—so new the absence that the air around it is still warm. The story follows a young woman’s attempt to forge a new life with her sister away from their abusive home. But cliches develop for a reason, and hot pans are usually flanked by hotter flame.

The narrative spans the length of the two sisters’ move-in day. At the new place where it is too empty and every shadow looks too long, Katie (Mikey Gray) nonetheless hopes to put together her sense of safety out of that disorienting barrenness. Here, her sister Haley (Presley Elliott) will be safe. Her dog Trudy will not have to be on alert. Katie can sleep in peace. Katie hopes.

But new inklings of trouble sprout into the peripheries of consciousness, even before one can wonder about work, burning savings, or missing school. Even while the sisters are still severing ties with their abusive mother (Elisabeth Parroquin, voice) and complicit father (Jim Todd, voice), a new pair of eyes—many new pairs, in fact, and the harder to discern innocuous from malevolent—keep vigil on their movements. Katie can lock her bedroom door from the inside but the window refuses to shut away the last inch of the world.

The night sequence—where the plot kicks into gear and veils fall off more rudely than the film really had you prepared for—takes up most of the 13-minute runtime. Lighting creates a moonlit night, just bright enough to reveal the forms of threats. Gray embodies the tenuous line leading from chronic vigilance to destructive collapse. The apartment becomes the arena of a two on one fight while spectators watch on, not altogether horrified.

While the title of Projection makes a play on its psychological plot and its cinematic medium, the film constructs itself under the influence of the history of its genre. It results in an effective climax a la early and classic horror cinema, combining lighting, editing, and a generous dose of gore. Go into it for a contemporary uptake of your vaunted favourites.

Watch Projection Horror Short Film