An ambiguous, gentle exploration of mortality. Drawn out of his sweltering apartment during a heat wave by a strange hammering, James confronts a horrible coincidence. A great example of how much depth can be crammed into a short film. Intriguing and strangely heartbreaking at the same time. it doesn’t grandstand, or finish on a shocking revelation. Yet it feels subtly profound in a way that is difficult to describe.
Natalie James/ Australia/ 2016/ 10 mins
The most overtly horrific film of this programme is this chillingly effective Tale from Australia. Sam (Dana Miltins) is visiting her father at the farmhouse in which she grew up. He reveals he’s selling it for reasons that bring her childhood terrors back from the depths. Natalie James makes great use of the isolated setting, and evokes an atmosphere of genuine dread and an implied sense of great grief and an enduring family tragedy.
Janne Reinikainken, Iddo Soskolne/ Finland/ 2015/ 15 mins
This Finnish short (Reunion in English) is heavy with loss, but approaches it in such a compassionate and thoughtful way, that it is as charming as it is sad. Anja (Riitta Havukainen) is a psychopomp, helping the newly dead adjust to the afterlife. Her next assignment is her brother, who, it’s implied, was accidentally responsible for her death thirty years earlier. Full of sweet, droll, Scandinavian touches and lovely characters beautifully sketched with deft economy, Tuolla Puolen is a highlight not just of the short programmes, but of the whole of Dead By Dawn so far.
Julien Lasseur/ USA/ 2016/ 13 mins
It may be surprising that a film about an outlandish assisted suicide (“the motherfucking Combo!”) contains a such a high level of belly laughs. This is down to a tremendous script that highlights the difference between the dignified, jazz-loving ‘client’ (Thomas Silcott), and the brash polyester Kevorkian, Lenny (the flat out hilarious Brian Groh). Dignitas this ain’t. Beautifully shot and performed, Last Call Lenny works on every level.
Sean Lahiff/ Australia/ 2015/ 7 mins
A young woman sprints through a dense forest, pursued by a machete-wielding psycho in camouflage webbing. We’ve seen this scenario a million times before. However, our expectations are soon flipped, and we have yet another little gem that injects an intense shot of comedy into its macabre setting.
The End Is Nigh is a really tremendous programme in which it’s difficult to find anything to fault. Perhaps only the most nihilistically inclined gore hound could possibly come away disappointed. It seems that the shorter form is proving fertile ground for comedy horror; it being notoriously tricky to balance the laughs and the shocks across an entire feature. Even among the uniformly strong field here, Tuolla Puolen really stands out.