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★★★
Directed by: James Webber Starring: Mhairi Calvey, Will Rastall and Max Mallaby Short Film Review by: Rachel Pullen
Don’t you hate it when you’re trying to be a good parent and raise your child in a healthy positive environment but then your partner gets all possessed and jacks up the electricity bill by staying up all night watching static on the T.V? What a drain. Not only is it selfish to burden you with all the parenting responsibilities, but you know it’s a real inconvenience, what with all the cadavers laying around and TV’s you have to turn off all the time, some people should just not have kids.
Well this nightmare is no longer just that, but it’s the story behind James Webber’s short horror called Hushy Bye, well maybe not the whole “burden of parenting” part and fears of electrical consumption, but you know the possession part for sure.
We welcome the story onto our screens as a tired man [played by Will Rastall] is awoken in the night, probably not the first time because babies are self involved like that, by his screaming child and so he goes to do that thing where he looks after it.
Once he has regained his senses he notices that his wife, lady friend, casual lover, whoever I’m not judging, is nowhere to be seen, so he ventures downstairs to see if she is busy cooking a pot roast for him, dudes love pot roasts at 3 am, but alas this is not the case.
We stumble upon his lady [played by Mhairi Calvey] staring aimlessly into the television, which as I mentioned earlier has nothing on it but static, think of The Ring but without small Asian ladies coming from the screen. It does not take long for our poor father figure to clock on to the fact that this woman is no longer the mother of his child, ensuring a world of evil awakens in his front room.
For a short that is only 3 minutes long Webber does an excellent job in creating tension and suspense, the angle choices and lighting play pivotal roles in making an unsettling environment on screen, building us up for the unnerving scene where we are presented with the female character. Although there is little to the storyline in terms of dialogue we are very aware of what is going on, this short confidently keeps a good pace and allows for easy access to the characters and their needs.
Hushy Bye is professional, stylish and well presented, and although you won’t lose any sleep on this horror it certainly provides open doors for a more developed storyline that could become a feature length film. It has the feel of a trailer, making the audience want more and more, and I certainly want to see how this one plays out…
Did he ever get that pot roast? Maybe I will never know.
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