The SnowRaven Chronicles: The Hive

A short animated film written and directed by AJ Spencer.

A warrior woman does battle with a strange monster. That is the general plot of this poorly-made animated short. To be more specific, the story takes place in a snow-covered location (where exactly is not explained), where the heroine, Saska, a young woman whose face is covered in clown paint, is tending to her flock of sheep when they are attacked by a massive green creature that resembles the entity in The Blob, only that this one also has what appears to be tentacles with mouths full of sharp teeth. A battle ensues, followed by events that are caused by the creature's desire for revenge. The story seems to be set in the past, maybe early twentieth century judging by the characters' clothing and the weaponry that includes swords, rifles and a machine gun.

This film was made using computer animation and has a duration of approximately six minutes. Just to make it clear now, this is not a recommended viewing for a variety of reasons that will be mentioned below. What is good about this short? Is there anything about this short that could be commended? Perhaps that would be acknowledging the fact that people created something, even if it is flawed but at least they created something.

Now, what is negative about this piece of filmmaking (if it could be classified as such). To begin with, there is the animation. The computer animation makes it look like the film was made thirty years ago and the characters' movements do not look great either, in fact they look very mechanical. The sound effects include gunshots and roars and their quality is rather poor. There is some decent dynamic music, however the melody of a medieval flute is also present at certain times throughout and listening to it feels awkward as it does not match the content of the images. The characters have very few spoken words and narration is utilised in order to help explain the story. The voice-over is a male voice and it sounds unenthusiastic. What about the story? Although a plot concerning people going against a giant deadly monster is intriguing, the way the narrative is executed, separated into chapters and with events that make no sense, such as a boat with soldiers appearing out of nowhere, makes it feel like their hardly is a story.

What about he performances? The voice acting? As mentioned, the narration sounds dull and the little speech that exists is no better. Nothing else to add here.

The themes in this film? This is a story about good vs evil. It is a story about finding the inner strength to save people and defeat evil.

How to summarise? This is a poorly-made animated fantasy short film. The apparent intention was to create something that can be acknowledged as a decent achievement. Unfortunately, that is not the case and most viewers are likely find the experience laughable.