Latest Short Film Reviews

This is a short film exploring grief from the point of view of a child who has lost both her parents. Losing her parents means that she is taken under the wing of her uncle. It appears that this relationship is not one that has been close and so the story follows their relationship as they try to come to terms with the deaths of their loved ones. A very important aspect of their life is their faith in god.

The audience is taken to 1970s Birmingham and the director is able to portray some elements of the time. The struggles of the people living through that period are shown particularly at the uncles home. The sets are dimly lit to show the mood perfectly for those working and living in this era. Each scene is edited together seamlessly and there is good use of locations throughout.

The film depicts the emotions of grief with real sensitivity. The grief is calm and quiet and feels real. The audience will be completely captivated by the performances of the main character Eva played by Talia Sokal and uncle David played by Ben Caplan. This is a difficult subject matter and one that is dealt with beautifully through the actions of the child. The viewers will be encouraged to observe the relationship between uncle and niece as the film moves through each scene. You feel how uncomfortable this relationship is and the awkwardness that comes when relative strangers are being pushed together at such a difficult time. Full credit goes to the actors for making every emotion feel real.

The other important relationship is between Eva and her friend Sam played by Charlie Bishop. They really encapsulate how it can be easier to talk to someone of your own age. The scenes between these two characters are really well used and pivotal to the story going forward. Charlie Bishop is able to portray empathy and compassion throughout, which is a credit to him and the writing and the direction.

The film develops a childlike way of discussing death and attempting to deal with death. It does this by showing how a child would communicate with those that are gone and does this in a unique way. The writer was able to get inside the mind of the child and their response to grief. The audience will understand the message and the symbolic nature of this film. It is simple but simplicity is quite often the best way to tell a story. They were also able to show the audience how important faith is to the main characters. There are scenes that show certain elements of the Jewish faith such as Hamotzi, which are well used and add further meaning to the story. Some of the best scenes are between the uncle and niece at the uncles home. The story has a strong focus on the main characters and does not deviate from the message.

This is an important film which tackles a very difficult subject but does so in a very quiet manner with no drama. It is a subtle look at grief but this does not in anyway reduce the power of the images shown. The performances are developed well and show a real understanding of the subject, which is particularly impressive considering the age of the main actors involved. This will have an effect on those who know grief first hand.

An astronaut is the sole survivor of a catastrophic mission into the depths of space, where an unknown entity reaches out to grasp at the humanity within his soul.

Commander Freddie Ballard (Kent) is in a bit of a pickle. He can’t quite figure out just where he is, or whether he has actually already been on the mission that has been assigned to him by his superior officer (DoQui). Rather anachronistically he is called back to himself through the time-tested cinematic device of a telephone ringing. At first it’s his girlfriend (Ponraj) who picks up the phone, even though he tells her not to, but time and again we are brought back to that same room, and that same ringing of the telephone, so that Freddie can receive his limited narrative motivation and move onto the next sequence of his story.

Interspersed with Freddie’s home life and military debriefing is the time he spends in space, or has spent, or will spend, or will spend again. You see, Freddie appears to be caught in some sort of time loop, or space loop, and it is unclear whether he is remembering his story, looking to the future, or is caught in some sort of simulation. In reality there are no answers for Freddie, because there are no answers for us as the audience, but that is only a secondary concern when it seems that what we are all here for, especially the filmmakers, is the stylised visuals.

Writer/director, Angad Aulakh takes great pains to set his scenes exactly the way he wants them, with production designer, Leah Berman helping create a classic neo-noir feel to every industrialised walkway, cargo bay, and corridor within the spaceship. Things are far more Nostromo here than they are Enterprise-D. The black-and-white presentation also heightens this stylisation, grounding the mystery elements of Freddie’s investigations into the unknown, while also giving the visual effects room to breathe without revealing any of their secrets.

In fact, the visual effects are so well polished around the edges, in 4K, that it’s a wonder that visual effects artists, Stuart Lippincott and Ian Mills Miller, were able to get it all done with just the two of them working on it. Aurora succeeds or fails on the scale, grandeur, and believability, of these visual effects shots, and each of them is pulled off incredibly, with remarkable detail, clean finish, and perfect lighting the whole way through. Around half of the film exists in these shots alone, and when they are also doing the job of holding up the narrative, their gravitas and intention needs to shine through just from their composition and movement, which they manage to do seamlessly.

While borrowing elements from such space opera classics as Solaris (1972), 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), and Star Trek V: The Final Frontier (1989), Aurora instead only uses the symbology, aesthetic, and overall intention of these pieces, rather than digging down into the issues, characters, and themes which underpinned them and made them great. Plot is unceremoniously jettisoned only to be supplanted by cinematic devices and garbled storytelling, while the space scenery does all of the heavy lifting. The thing is that you can see in the fifteen minutes of Aurora that there’s a full feature aching to emerge from it. There’s enough of other films, and of a narrative that does make sense in the round if you like things a little Lynchian – all jumbled and mysterious – but it’s also easy to see that without a stable story or compelling characterisation, fifteen minutes is probably about all that most people could take.

Aurora needs to be seen to be believed, and is a tour-de-force in visual effects and design. Its scant narrative is subsumed into the wider visual spectacle with no real loss of engagement, and is carried by strong performances into a realm of wonder and awe. If visual language is what you’re after, Aurora shines bright through the darkness.

Aurora will premiere at the 2026 HollyShorts Film Festival

Directed by Ishtiyak Ahmad Ziad, Whisper Of The Ink deals with the consequences of what happens when you risk everything just to ask for help.

In Bangladesh where from June 6th to August 5th 2024 they experienced state brutality when protests formed demanding reforms to the discriminatory job quota system. with 300 deaths including children and more than 20 '000 injuries and the arrests of 11'000. From July 16th till the 28th they imposed complete Internet shutdown isolating the people preventing them from spreading the word as they tried to eliminate the movement.

When the couple Rashed (Avik Talukdar), who is an artist, creates protest paintings, posting them online, alongside his pregnant wife Runa (Sanzida Sorna) discuss what good just drawing cartoons and posting them on Facebook does for the campaign. Cut between real news footage it's stark,the realism that hits the viewer that this is going on around them at this very moment. You the viewer get a sense of longing from Runa who wishes to be more active on the protest front but due to being pregnant. A scary time to live in hoping for your unborn child that things will get better and that their loved ones will be safe.

When an emergency happens when Runa's water breaks, the curfew set by the government has a great knock on effect. They cannot leave, they cannot get help, they are truly stranded having to deal with this stressful situation or face the possibility of arrest or death. When the husband desperately decides to try to leave to get someone to help,he suffers great consequences from the government.

Filmed in black and white which is a perfect choice for setting the tone. It's dark, depressing which is what the subject matter that's being discussed is dealing with. It would be too stark of a shift if it was filmed with bright colours and whimsy. It's such a powerful cinematic experience, to show that humans are strong and resilient when faced with trying times.

The performances by both leads were so strong and believable. You really felt you were in those claustrophobic restraints of their apartment with a war on the doorstep. The wife's performance when going into labour is so realistic and raw you feel the need to survive from her. With a cliffhanger ending leaving the viewer to run with their imagination of what would happen next. Quite a tragic bleak ending.

Whisper Of The Ink moves the audience in a deep profound way, leaving the viewer with a lot to sink in. It's important that it is heard and that events like these are projected and don't get forgotten.

Doggerland: The Dead & The Lonely is an independent short piece set in the wake of a viral outbreak that has ravaged the world. The narrative follows John (Matz Martyn), a failing survivalist who thinks he’s the last human alive, as he meets Janice (Gráinne Kelly), who forces him to confront his grief and achieve his greatest goal. Set in rural Essex, the film was made by a local community to put the town on the map.

Doggerland: The Dead & The Lonely is the type of film that is better experienced without any prior knowledge of the narrative, as the less you know going in, the better. The piece balances its bleak and uplifting tones exceptionally well throughout, thanks to its technical aspects and performances. While it has a somewhat aimless narrative structure, it never loses sight of its character focus and prioritises these aspects over spectacle. The rural setting of Essex itself feels like its own character, and it's evident why the filmmakers wanted to give it more exposure. It also helps that the environment provides a perfect backdrop for the post-apocalyptic setting, with its open exterior space and run-down buildings. The piece boasts incredible production value despite its evident budget constraints. Another technical aspect that shouldn't go unrecognised is the costuming, as it is terrific and gives the central character a more singular persona among the supporting players and rural backdrop.

Despite the latter half of the narrative being more dialogue-heavy, the opening of the piece is quite isolating due to its lack of dialogue and greater reliance on visual storytelling. The focus on visual storytelling is commendable, as it places the viewer in John’s isolated space and invites us to experience events from his perspective. As John reflects on his struggles and past trauma, the narrative adopts a more meandering approach, which is both a positive and a detriment to the flow of the narrative. While the meandering approach can bring the narrative to a grinding halt, the decision to delve deeper into John’s characterisation is effective, fleshing out the themes of grief and survival. This is often depicted through flashbacks, or simply by John sitting in silence, processing his feelings.

Max Elliot Lovell, the film's cinematographer, makes striking use of rural Essex, capturing expansive wide shots of the surrounding open spaces before shifting to intimate close-ups during moments of recollection. The camerawork really helps ground the central character’s struggles and his exploration of self-discovery and survival. Another enticing aspect of the camerawork is the use of handheld during brief moments of tension to capture the visceral nature of violence. The sequences of tension are incredibly well executed thanks to this and its intense musical score.

Both central performances from Matz Martyn and Gráinne Kelly in their portrayals of John and Janice, respectively, are incredibly compelling throughout. They balance the bleak and uplifting tones effectively while conveying the sense of isolation in the ravaged world they’re forced to live in. Despite their lack of chemistry, the dramatic beats still resonate thanks to their performances and sombre musical score.

Doggerland: The Dead & The Lonely is an uncompromising tale of what it's like to live in a world in the wake of a viral outbreak, with two stunning performances to boast. While the narrative ultimately amounts to little in the end, it's a well-made film that tackles thought-provoking themes of grief and survival with an open-ended finale.

Set in a dystopian future where an internal neural chip makes emotion void. F.1 (Cindy Claes), a government scientist, finds herself in a dilemma when a test subject, Grace (Monika Valkunaite), doesn’t take to the procedure, unearthing erased past memories and F.1 questioning her own morals and the long-term consequences.

The opening sequence starts with a group of subjects explaining their experiences with the Unneurolink chip in flat, monotonous voices. All cogs in a machine. This cuts to the leading character, F.1, going into her monologue about Unneurolink and the effects it’s had on humanity. It tries to sell a positive insight to begin with, but we already get this unsettling feeling that something’s not quite right.

F.1 is presented to us in an emotionless and regimented way, exactly how Unneurolink intended. Just another enforcer that gets the job done. From the beginning, the film is set in a sterile environment with a cold colour palette. It uses effective visual effects and editing to convey the future and how hope is lost for humanity.

Whilst working on Grace, the only goal is to get her ‘fixed’, meaning to eradicate her emotions. Brain scans are displayed to show the activity across Grace and how it seems impossible.

The tension between the two reaches a climax when Grace lashes out. F.1 begins experiencing flashbacks full of colour and joy, a dramatic moment followed by tears and heightened music.

The film’s title ‘All Dogs Go To Heaven’ is stated in dialogue to portray how lost and corrupt the world has become. How humans are just pawns and emotion equals weakness.

Towards the end, lighting is used to portray a sense of hope and connection between characters, using silhouettes and dialogue to create closeness.

The storyline offers a thought-provoking exploration of humanity and the consequences of eradicating emotions. The opening introduction sets that premise up: a group of soulless soldiers to the system. A hierarchy of scientists to test subjects shown through the cinematography creates a constant sense of uneasiness. This is shown through shots on the table looking up, subjects feeling like they have no body autonomy.

The editing immerses us into a future world whilst still feeling realistic; it is not overbearing and keeps us on track with the storyline.

Overall, F.1’s character could have been fleshed out more and that may be due to pacing. The turnaround of the characters’ emotions could have benefited from a slower pace, giving space to such a switch-up, especially towards the end.

The ending loses its momentum a little and could cause potential confusion with viewers.

Sci-fi is hard to get right, especially on a smaller budget, but as a short film, it sends out a strong message.

It is courageous but remains relevant about technology and society ever-developing. The cinematography and sound marry perfectly together, both high quality and impressive for a lower budget.

They nail the intention of this film and leave us pondering on the ethics, values, and what has been lost.

This is a proof of concept/ pilot and gives a taster of what a series could look like. The proof of concept is based on the series of books written by Will Jordon which follow Ryan Drake a CIA operative. Ryan Drake is a member of a special activities division made up of elite military veterans who retrieve high value assets. On this occasion the high value asset has been taken by Russians and it is up to Ryan Drake and his small team to get the asset back.

As you can imagine this is action packed viewing which does not hold back on the violence. If violence is not something you want to see on screen then this might not be an enjoyable watch, as at times it gets quite graphic. There are times where the camera quickly switches away from the violence leaving the audience to imagine what is happening. The action starts even before the opening credits have finished and this gives the audience a good grasp of what to expect. This is an effective way of drawing the audience in and it shows the viewer a key part of one characters history, which provides depth to the shows plot and clues to their role within it.

This is fast paced high octane viewing and requires the audiences full attention. The action sequences are well choreographed and look believable and there are many to enjoy. There is no time to look away or be distracted as each character has their own battle against the enemy. The sound track is very effective throughout, with it’s fast paced beat as each scene unfolds. The music really sets the pace of each scene and acts like the ticking time bomb leading up to each sequences conclusion.

The use of flashbacks is very effective and the way they are created reveals how the characters memory is working. There are times when the flashbacks feel like they are interrupted and distorted. This is a reflection of how the characters brain works and potentially how past events have affected their memory. The use of shallow focus works successfully throughout.

The fact that this has been written by the author of the books is important as you can see their imagination unfold on screen. The characters and plot are not left to the ideas of others which can often lead to a lack of understanding of the authors vision. This maybe even more important to the viewers who have read the books and have expectations of how the story is told and how each character looks and behaves.

The actors in the pivotal roles are generally based in Canada although appear to have backgrounds from countries in Europe. There are a number of accents on show such as Russian, American and English. Derek Moran plays Ryan Drake and appears to be good casting particularly during action sequences. This is not an easy task and no doubt takes weeks and possibly months of hard work. Ryan Drake has been written as an English agent and at times Derek Morans accent sounded a bit muddled. This did have a slight impact on the performance and may prove to be a distraction for the audience, particularly those from England.

The cast was really balanced and well put together. They all meet the physical requirements of the role and are able to showcase their skills when speaking in accents that may not be natural to them. I found Brian Bisson and Andrea Pavlovic to be the stand out stars and they had good chemistry between them. Andrea Pavlovic stole many of the scenes and hers was a character I’d like to see more of going forward. Olena Medwid as Anya had limited dialogue but this did not detract from her performance as her physical acting skills were very effective and vital to her role. Her scenes were physically challenging and full of emotion.

The director Travis Grant is also credited as a writer and the collaboration with the author works well. The lighting in many of the scenes portrays the desperate situation that some of the characters find themselves in. It is dimly lit and many of the sets lack colour. Close up camera work heightens the tension portrayed in each scene. Despite this being a proof of concept production, it feels polished and could easily be the finished product and ready to air.

Overall this is an action packed show which sets the scene for future episodes. There is plenty of excitement and well choreographed fight scenes. This proof of concept gives the audience enough to want more and also provides enough answers to make for an enjoyable watch in isolation . If the audience have the read the books it will no doubt be beneficial but it is not essential. Make sure you watch through the closing credits as more is revealed in the mid credit scenes.

Coming from Ireland, this short drama is written and directed by Rebecca Hickey, who also stars, alongside acclaimed actors Peter Coonan, Barry John Kinsella and Caoilfhionn McDonnell.

An elderly man has just passed away in Northern Ireland and his daughter, Claire (Hickey) has arrived from London, currently staying in her late father's home. It is now nighttime and Claire is in the house, sitting at a table with her two siblings, Michael (Coonan) and Patrick (Kinsella). Their mother (McDonnell) is sleeping upstairs and there is a baby camera monitor on the table. They have just finished eating and are having a late-night chat, which ends up being a dramatic one.

The narrative takes place in real time and in one room, that being the dining room, with the two brothers sitting next to one another and their sister opposite them. The concept revolves around the meaningful conversation they have between them, which involves life-changing matters such as Claire separating from her partner, the brothers trying to convince her to move back so that their mother can have someone to look after her and for Claire to potentially meet a guy. All this is not perceived well by the sister, who angrily refuses to comply to her sibling's suggestions, ensuing in an argument and criticism. The tension is high at times and there is occasional humour and dialogue keeps things intriguing by concentrating on the characters' point of view regarding the various topics of discussion.

This film gains a lot from the contributions of two acclaimed artists, those being multi-award-winning cinematographer Jass Foley and Northern Ireland composer Anthony Eve.

As Claire, Hickey plays a young woman who knows what she wants, is determined to stand her ground and not let others decide what she is to do. Coonan and Kinsella portray the brothers as well-meaning individuals, who also come across as a bit selfish or maybe too naive to comprehend that family responsibilities should not be limited to one person. Although her appearance is brief in this thirteen-minute-long short, McDonnell provides a performance that establishes her character as caring and understanding.

Hickey's screenplay is basically a dramatic conversation that deals with a variety of heavy themes. The dialogue between the three siblings is about self-reflection, family values, about people having the right to make their own choices and about family commitments and expectations, about what one is expected to for their family. Furthermore, the story covers feminism, sexism and appears to be anti-male to a degree.

A short family drama about three siblings having a conversation that reflects on their lives. A very well-made film with strong acting that ends up a thoughtful viewing experience due to the subjects that it recognises.

In a near future, police state Britain, the leader of a rebel group is gunned down on a stage that he was never supposed to have been on, as a member of the ruling authority tries to play both sides in an effort to bring back everything the UK has lost along the way.

In 2028 the Prime Minister was assassinated and a new power seized control for what was supposed to be only a temporary period. By 2032, The Interim Authority still has a stranglehold on the power in the country and has created a surveillance state where everybody’s movements are monitored and everyone’s details are registered in order to control them. Casey Rock (Vatikiotis), the leader of a rebel group, has managed to infiltrate an IA conference and has got himself on stage to deliver a message to the people, helped there by double agent, Detective Reed Stanford (Hristov), but before he can get his first sentence out, he’s blasted through the head and falls down dead on the stage.

Detective Reed rushes to help, oblivious to who might be watching, and is helped out of the building by shady agents of no description. What follows is an unfolding of events, where we are caught up in flashbacks, while Detective Reed tries to keep playing his hand as a member of the IA and the rebel group simultaneously. Alongside him on either side are his wife and fellow rebel, Maddie (Upton), and his new boss, Detective Monk (Kirk), who both need Reed to keep doing what he’s doing as long as they each believe that he’s on their side.

Sold as a Children Of Men (2006) style look into the future of Britain, where the police state runs everyone’s lives and home-grown terrorism lurks on every corner, The Defectors rushes us straight into the action with very little setup, throwing characters and scenarios at us that we have no clue about until we are caught up in the round. Very quickly we have to deal with people shouting in rooms at each other in one scene, and quiet conversations of subterfuge and revolution in another, while everybody moons around in black and grey without necessarily giving up just which side they are on.

There is quite a bit of to-ing and fro-ing in the script, as Detective Reed switches between sides, trying to play all angles, and we are thrown around from past to present as we are furnished with the details that we never got in the beginning, through flashbacks that try to tell us which side Reed is really on. It can be quite tricky to keep up with what’s going on in The Defectors, as people can look pretty similar in their black and grey, with their ratty facial hair and turned up collars, standing in the shadows, and the dialogue doesn’t help us any as it rattles through its exposition from a writer’s standpoint, telling us its facts as though we have already lived the past four years with these people.

In the space of twenty-minutes we should really be able to get a good handle on our characters and scenarios, if they were introduced and handled properly, but here we are faced with stylised cinematography and bad synth chords instead, as a crutch to expose the near-futurism of the piece, without really focusing on the main things that any good story needs. In the end The Defectors gets caught up in itself and its character play, twisting threads around each other in ways that don’t feed the main idea or the over-arching scenario, but instead keeping the pieces moving around the board until they are so far up each other’s backside that it’s hard to tell them apart.

It’s also hard to tell what the point of The Defectors really is, when it jettisons the overall narrative to instead focus on the Internal Affairs of a few bent coppers and a tiny home-cell of supposed rebels. There’s no real commentary on the state of the country as it is today, and no real warning of where we could be heading if we don’t fix the unnamed things that are broken. Without taking a standpoint against anything in particular, The Defectors just becomes a play about people in a future that doesn’t exist, talking about things that don’t affect us. Their machinations are entirely self-ingratiating and only look inward at the characters rather than expositioning a world that we could believe in, and with that it leaves itself more as a poor man’s Line Of Duty (which is poor enough itself in the first place) than any sort of revolutionary statement on life in the UK.

The story opens with an obsessed, rather unhinged character following and planning a way to infiltrate a man’s life. We come to meet both of these characters, Guy (Lewis Dixon) and Bruno (Alex Moeser) after bumping into each other at a pub as Bruno slowly unveils his sinister intentions.

Based off of the novel ‘Strangers on a Train’ by Patricia Highsmith. The first focus is on Guy and how his life is falling apart at the seams. He is juggling his career, a divorce, and a new lover whilst his life is thrown into the spotlight in the headlines.

Bruno happens to ‘overhear’ his phone conversation with his lover Anne (Leila Ballentyne). He invites himself to the table and starts his manipulation tactics, referring back to his rehearsed lines at the beginning of the film. He’s got Guy in an intimate setting, a space that is more secluded and starts his confessional. Constantly probing at Guy’s life and his decisions, at first Guy is apprehensive. We see him faced with endless phone calls and even showing a more aggressive temperament towards his wife, Miriam (Marcela Marin Dapelo). This is a great device used to show Guy’s distress, poor decision making and how his interactions differ with each character throughout.

Guy stays at the table with Bruno even after everything he’s said. Bruno plies him with drink and acts like they have a bond. We see how manipulation and compliance can alter a person’s moral compass and decisions. Bruno appears to be a sociopathic character that knows what to say and how to say it, and Guy is his target to puppeteer. We get to the film’s climax, Bruno’s monologue is enhanced with the orchestral score that gets louder as Guy is actually thinking the idea through. The last sequence is Guy descending the staircase for the final time, creating the ultimate sense of dread, leaving the viewer thinking about the repercussions even after the credits roll.

This works well as a short film, a decisive adaptation of the original novel. It uses two different walks of life and how we see a predator going after it's prey, especially shown through over-the-shoulder shots. The lighting creates a stark contrast from ominous tones at the beginning to the warm, inviting tones of the pub as Bruno carries out his manipulation, offering a friendly ear.

While the film is set between two characters, it could have potentially utilised the space they filmed in more and evoked more emotion through the actors’ performances and editing. There is only so much you can accomplish in shorter films; however, seeing more of Bruno’s backstory would have been interesting to really delve into the psyche of the character and how increasingly dangerous he is.

Overall, it is an impactful adaptation with some great cinematography and lighting choices. It draws you in with Bruno’s introduction and the anticipation of what’s to unfold, as Bruno states things like ‘you took action and I like that’ and ‘you’re one of the few in life that do things’. We see two characters fighting demons in different ways and the extent one is willing to go to.

The Foreboding: Fractured (2024) is a short horror film written by Alexander Staunton-Hill. Alexander also plays one of the students named Connor that this story follows.

The group of four goes for a hike in the English countryside, laughing and joking, revealing their year-long friendships that began at the start of their university studies. When they settle around the campfire in the woods, character Abigail (played by Eve Kathryn Oliver) entertains the group with a scary story set in the same woods they are huddled in. The story highlights a ghost looking for her deceased brother who drowned in the nearby lake, with the cabin the siblings stayed in also a stone's throw away.

When the group splits in an attempt for Aaron to rekindle an old spark with Amy, Connor and Abigail collect some firewood before they hear the whispers of the ghost from the story. The ghost shows Connor a vision of his friends dead.

To stop the proposed events unfolding, the group search for safety and a way to prevent the curse continuing.

The narrative of this film is easy to follow, compelling and full of fast-paced action. The horror aspects of the ‘ghost girl’ are strong. The costume, hair and makeup of the supernatural are uneasy and remarkably effective.

The banter presented between the four friends was realistic and enjoyable to watch. It would have been nice to understand the characters more so that audiences could empathise with them. Without knowing or caring much about the characters, the stakes did not feel high.

There was also some confusion with the relationship between Connor and Abigail, at times romance was alluded to, but this was not clear. An unmistakable connection between the pair might have sparked more emotion from the audience when the characters do comfort each other throughout their trauma.

The visuals of the film were of high quality and professional, from the cinematography down to smaller details like the opening credits. Unfortunately, I do not think the performances were as strong. A high skill level is needed to pull off a performance of grief and immense distress and I do not think that the performances were convincing of this.

I understand the difficulties of fitting a more complex narrative into a shorter production, but there were some holes in the plot and elements that were not clear. During one of the final scenes, Abigail stabs what seems to be a dark fabric. I assume this could be the remnants of the drowned brother in the cabin, mentioned previously in the story, but this was not apparent. The reasoning behind the curse and why it involves the teenagers is also not known.

Overall, this film has a strong narrative with high production value. Some enhancements to the script for a deeper story with more character building would improve it. It was an enjoyable watch with the horror genre being served well.