Boston Underground Film Festival 2022 – Short Film Reviews

Thorns

Thorns sees a young couple go to stay a night at a motel only to have their night interrupted by an unwanted guest.

At a little over five minutes Thorns creates an easy to follow story with a satisfying ending. Something most films struggle to do! I really enjoyed how the movie looked and sounded. The cinematography is fantastic, with a great use of lighting. Often giving this old school feel to the short. The score makes a surprisingly great use of the church organ sound to create plenty of scares.

I did not see that ending coming either. Directors Sarah Wisner and Sean Temple are ones I will be keeping a close eye on.

In Darkness

On paper a very simple short. In around about three minutes the folk poem ‘Babes in the Wood’ is read aloud while the camera shows shots of a pretty creepy-looking forest and the occasional naked body part. Creepy is the perfect word though because the slow, purposeful reading of the poem and the excellent score, alongside the footage of the trees create a perfectly scary atmosphere. Making In Darkness and interesting and atmospheric short film.

Big Weekend Plans

Suicide doesn’t seem like the most obvious of choices for a comedy but Big Weekend Plans gives it a go. And it works perfectly.

We see a woman, unhappy with life and wanting to end it. Only nothing seems to be working. Not even hiring someone to do it for her. Other methods fail aswell, mainly because the woman is too scared to go through with it. So when she starts choking on a bit of pizza, she has a decision to make.

Another really enjoyable short that tells a good story in about five minutes.

Johnny The Dime

Another comedy and with a very different subject this time. As a guy notices a neighbour spying on what he thinks is a woman. Only the woman is not there and Johnny decides to dress up as her to trick the voyeur.

David Gazzo as ‘Johnny the Dime’ is absolutely fantastic. He kind of plays two roles. One as he talks to the camera, documentary style, explaining what he did. And the other as him in the situation and dressing up. He’s great in both and his comedic timing is perfect. I laughed out loud on a couple of occasions. But even though it’s funny, Johnny the Dime is also surprisingly sweet too and puts a smile on your face in a different way as the end credits role.
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The Boston Underground Film Festival runs March 23rd – 27th 2022. For more information please check out https://bostonunderground.org/