Plague, The (Short, 2017)
Starring Gabriela Freire, Rafael Soliwoda, Walter Rey
Directed by Guillermo Carbonell
I absolutely love some of these fantastic short films that I get the opportunity to check out from time to time – they can equally rival any full-length feature film that’s jam-packed with horror, suspense, mystery and serious character development. Only problem is when one doesn’t waste any time getting to the point, it becomes quite the task to describe it for readers without blowing the lid off of its premise. With Guillermo Carbonell’s The Plague, it becomes obvious where this one is headed pretty quick, but it doesn’t diminish from its overall power.
The around 9 minute quickie centers around a woman who’s just discovered her father has returned to her home – now she knows that he isn’t supposed to be there, because she placed him in a nursing home a short time ago, and the image of him sitting fully clothed in the bathtub with the shower on has her a bit dismayed, but she reassures him that all will be ok, and that he can stay there for the night. Here’s where things get a bit dicey: you see, ol’ Papa hasn’t come to the house by himself, and before the sun rises, there will be some events that certain people might find a bit unsettling, to say the least.
Carbonell uses every moment of time in this production to set up what’s coming, and it not only works on a telling level, but the cinematography enhances the story also, with its gritty 70’s allure and overall mood of despair. This is one of those short films that could potentially open up a much larger presentation, but for now it’ll work quite well in the timeframe that it was meant to fill – make sure to give this one a look when it becomes available.
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Film
Categorized:Reviews
