The themes of the all-important first day at a new school and puppy love come together to create Grant Curatola’s Death and the Blue-Eyed Boy, which follows an unusual boy on his first day at his new and very odd school, before falling in love with a fellow pupil who may or may not be pure evil.
With shades of the work of Dario Argento, this short film manages to create an impending sense of dread as a series of strange and unique happenings conspire together to alienate and endanger the children in the school. The idea of an evil child who is a danger to other children is nothing new, but Curatola’s piece gives this theme an original and unique sense of malice and foreboding. Death and the Blue-Eyed Boy is one of the most striking films of the festival so far and while it may seem like a straightforward story, it quickly unravels to become a menacing vignette that questions just what goes on in the darkest recesses of a child’s mind when the adults leave them to their own, and sometimes deadly devices.