HollyShorts Film Festival 2023: Thrillers, Dramas And Aliens, Oh My!

The wealth of content at this year’s 2023 HollyShorts Film Festival has been an incredible cinematic experience. While thus far, I have delivered my thoughts in the showcases, in my last report, there’s a little bit of everything.

Les Bettus (The Fading) (Rafaël Beauchamp)

Coming out of the Thrillers Showcase, Rafaël Beauchamp‘s Les Bettus (The Fading) is a compact short packed with emotion, brutality and, in essence, human consumption. It is immediately engaging, never giving itself away, but rooting audiences in visuals alluding to a horrific nature. As an unseen man hums, the camera capturing the the chaos outside through a cabin window, it initially feels peaceful yet ominous. As the camera moves outside of the cabin, the rural nature is immediately evident, as is the destruction currently underway. As buildings burn to the ground, an almost panicked mob rushes towards the cabin, barging inside.

It feels like hysteria, the tint and contrasted lighting mixed with fire and hysteria feeling similar to that of a witch hunt in colonial America. It crescendos until the scene changes, settling on a grieving mother. There is an immediate contrast as the movement of the opening is stalled by the stillness of the mother, unable to move forward. As time passes, she is met by two women who convince her to come with them to the forest. As we ascertain, the woman’s son has gone missing in the woods with no trace. Fearing for the worst, she quietly seems to be preparing for what she has dreaded.

However she is taken back as she is presented with a potential perpetrator and possible solution. In the isolation of the forest, the young man before her is accused of doing something to her son, a small child’s jacket similar to the one her son wore in his possession. The hysteria of the group feeds on her trauma and grief, presenting her with the option of taking revenge herself. Both emotionally and physically overwhelmed, she loses herself for a moment in their touch, shooting the man before her.

Les Bettus (The Fading) becomes a short not about revenge, but about the loss of many. The loss of a son, the loss of self and the loss of redemption. Its ending works as it drips with ambiguity, allowing interpretation to once again consume the nature of the moment. A thrilling short, Les Bettus (The Fading) does anything but fade to the finish line.

The Pruning (Lola Blanc)

I have a lot of favorites from this year’s festival, and while The Pruning ranks high on my list, it also stands as one of the most poignant. Lola Blanc‘s The Pruning opens in an almost Tucker Carlson, internet-inspired fashion. There is an intensity to the woman, played brilliantly by Madeline Brewer, on screen as she spouts the importance of “pruning the rot” and that you have “got to be a little ruthless to keep the things you love alive”. These two phrases are the key to understanding The Pruning. While its messaging might be on the nose, its execution has you experience a visceral expression of guilt and ambition.

Much of the guilt begins to take form following a school shooting by a man named Bradley Parker. While the name bares little significance other than its recollection throughout the short, his representation rings loudly. Sami Gellar watches as her programing and messaging is called into question, many linking it as a direct result for the shooting that has just occurred. As people around her become directly affected by Parker’s violent attack and a letter appears at Sami’s home from the shooter, The Pruning begins to shift between reality and fiction, Sami’s subconscious mind becoming the crux of her conscience.

The subconscious mind is suspended into a horrific surrealistic expression of guilt and regret, one that begins to consume Sami from the inside out. With the prospect of one of the biggest opportunities for her career on the horizon, Sami is threatened by her guilt and remorse. The only answer is to prune the perceived demon inside.

A visceral thriller packed with horror, The Pruning will get under your skin, hitting deeper than you can ever imagine.

Fat Girl (Makez Rikweda)

Body dysmorphia is far from new, its prevalence is all too common in the realm of psychology. With the introduction of social media, its effects have only grown stronger, and while it can affect any demographic, the teen world has never seemed so dangerous. For Makez Rikweda‘s Fat Girl, the horror of perception, both of others and ourselves, reach new, terrifying heights.

The shot begins in a school bathroom, grounding the audience in both a relatable, yet all too powerful setting. As a young girl takes in her features in the mirror, it becomes clear she is hiding something in her bag, its reveal interrupted by the arrival of two classmates. As she stands there, almost unseen, we watch as the two girls gossip, fix their makeup and craft a Tik Tok, emulating both the immersion of both new and old perspectives on how we define our bodies. Much of the first half of the short relies on the content of an online influencer, one whose influence on the young girl grows over time. From simply viewing to dressing, her need to follow her online idol leads to drastic and devastating consequences.

Fat Girl has a lot to say in such a small time. While much of the narration follow the young girls’ descent into personal destruction, it also takes a moment to capture the environment around her – outside of just the content on her phone. We feel her isolation both at school and at home, her mother seemingly working late and far out of reach. At times it feels less of a criticism of social media and its effects on our youth, and rather the void that it fills in the absence of people around us. Fat Girl goes dark quick, ending without a chance for you to recover – leaving its powerful messaging in its wake.

Cruel Sea (Tobias Bye)

Oh, the folklore of the sea. That is how Tobias Bye‘s Cruel Sea begins, drenched in superstition. As a young fisherman works the lines, his captain comes to the middle of the boat setting a fire in a bucket in an attempt to remove the devil from the boat. It seems out of place and sudden, little indication around them for the need to absolve themselves of an unseen evil. It is here the film establishes the framework of expert and novice. The captain, as we learn, has been working on boats since he was a child. The sea and its unpredictability is ingrained, the changing tide felt in his bones. Yet, the young fisherman is a novice, inexperienced having seen little of the dangers that lap threateningly just beside them.

As the captain tells the tale of how he lost his father, the story drips with an air of superstition, yet as a viewers, the science behind what happened rings loudly. Even we are doubtful to the mysteries and lore of the sea. Even we are novices. As night takes hold, the young fisherman makes his way to the top of the boat. Feeling like they have been there for weeks, his awareness of time slowly fades away as he becomes entranced by a pair of eyes peering over the side of the boat at him.

More seduced than afraid, he leaps into the water and certain death the legends of mermaids quickly changing the framework of the short, catching us off guard and refusing to let go. Yet, as the short proves experienced or novice, the sea is cruel to either – and unrelenting.

Snatched (Michael Schwartz)

Part of the LGBTQIA+ selection, Michael Schwartz’ Snatched was a short I was definitely not expecting. Through the inspiration of Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Snatched becomes a hilarious horror short of accepting to be accepted. It is poignant as it is terrifying –  and it is out of this world.

Part of Hulu’s Huluween Bite-Size segment last year, Snatched begins with two young boys parting ways for the night. Just narrowly missing his parents seeing his boyfriend slip out, Joey finds the strength to come out. We can see the nervousness of unveiling his true self to his parents, his fear meet with quiet discontent shortly after. They seem perturbed by the news, upsettingly attempting to leave the room as quick as they can before the full breadth of their emotions are revealed. The short gives you a moment to feel the heartbreak of the quiet rejection Joey has just felt. Yet as the tears fall from Joey’s eyes, so do suspicious streaks of blue light just outside his window.

As he makes his way downstairs the following morning, the room is bright and warm, yet just a step away from blinding. The sound of disco music fills his ears as he enters the kitchen, find his parents not as he left them the night before. Euphoric, they embrace Joey, his mother demanding that he has to take her shopping, his father now sporting a pair of high cut shorts. Claustrophobia begins to set in as his over- accepting parents throw queer cliche’s faster than Joey can register them . In a Shining inspired moment on the stairs, Joey attempts to run from his family.

Though it is not only his parents, but everyone around him that has becomes infected with a need to over-accept the queer community. It is hilariously executed, working to a brutal and violent horror, encapsulating the terror and the humor of over-acceptance can be.

The Safety of Theo (Christopher Macken)

My final short of the HollyShorts film festival ended on a note of hilarity, Christopher Macken‘s The Safety of Theo delivering a brilliantly executed comedic look at OCD. The film has an innocuous beginning, a hint of perfectionism as a man cleans the inside of his nightstand drawer, neatly organizing the condoms they hold. It doesn’t initially feel like a comedy about OCD, the short diving into a one-night stand with only small tidbits of concern voiced about the medical consequences of not using a condom. He seems to reach the height of pleasure as the opening title appears, only to meet the harsh reality of the mind the next morning.

There is a cathartic acceleration to The Safety of Theo right from the moment he wakes up. Starting with a shower and thoroughly cleaning himself, we watch as the mind runs wild with his thoughts. From an initial google search to buying an HIV test at the drug store, Theo can not regain control until he is certain he is safe.

Based on the synopsis for Safety for Theo, I wasn’t sure what to expect and with Always Sunny in Philadelphia‘s Charlie Day set as executive producer, I was even more unsure. Safety for Theo is a brilliant showcase of the power of the mind and its ability to spiral out of control. The mind is a powerful thing, and one, at times, we have no control over. All we can do at the end of the day is settle its needs and find it the final solution.