Dead by Daw / Short Film Programme
Take a break from the long films that make up Dead by Dawn, with the What You Make It programme, which is made up of gentle, concentrated shots of horror cinema, which is just as unsettling as the rest of the line up.
Six multi-format short films made up the What You Make It programme this year. Michael Medaglia’s Kitty Kitty follows a woman as she tries to find an explanation for her boyfriend’s increasingly erratic behaviour. In Marc-Henri Boulier’s All Men Are Called Robert, a naked man is chased through a forest by a gang of hunters, Henrik Bjerregaard Clausen’s Born Again was the concerned literal and spiritual reawakening of a family of ultra-religious zombies. In Matt Bloom’s Endless, a woman is attacked in the shower by a knife wielding assailant. Na Hong-Jin’s A Perfect Red Snapper Dish concerned one passionate chef’s quest to make the perfect meal – at any cost, and finally, Ignacio Martin and Manuel Marin’s Merry Little Christmas explored the lasting and devastating effects of domestic violence.
Of these six short films, some can be classed as horror, others as merely unsettling or funny, and one as simply shattering. This extensive programme of shorts is a real mix of genres, themes, styles and messages, so while some pieces may not be for every viewer, there will be some films that will appeal to certain people. Some films, such as A Perfect Red Snapper Dish manage to perfectly balance horrific scenes of violence and comedy, whilst Endless, which was presented entirely in slow motion, a very interesting concept, was just focused on the actions, and not the characters, making the film cold and tiresome. However, a special mention must go to Martin and Marin’s brutal short, Merry Little Christmas, which focused on a mother and her daughter as they attempted to come to terms with the shocking domestic violence they were forced to endure many years before. Although not a traditional horror movie, this film has the ability to haunt, to frighten and unsettle, making it more terrifying than any ghost or ghoul. The What You Make It programme is a great chance to see some new and old pieces of work that don’t last as long as the rest of the films on the bill.