Boston Underground Film Festival 2022 – Short Film Reviews #2
A Family Affair
A young couple and their son get an unwelcome visitor one snowy Christmas night. They know they could be in danger but fear that sending the stranger back outside might lead to her death.
A Christmas set, snow-covered short coming in at about fifteen minutes, I was pretty sure I was going to enjoy this one. The Christmas setting isn’t quite as great as I hoped it would be but A Family Affair has plenty more going for it.
It looks great. With the power out, the family need to use candlelight and that glowing effect across each room really works well. A few old fashioned, multi-coloured Christmas lights would have made things perfect. As it is though, it’s pretty great. Partly because of the lighting but for other reasons too, this short looked much like a seventies movie. I recently saw Ti West’s X at the cinema and there were similarities here with that and actual seventies films like The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.
Couple this with some decent practical effects, all round good performances by all the cast, and some surprisingly brutal violence and you have a highly impressive short film. One that looks better than many films with a much larger budget. Be sure to check this one out at the first opportunity.
Mairzy Doats
Another short about a young couple but a very different one to A Family Affair. Mairzy Doats follows a young man and woman in love. Starting off with them hearing strange noises in the woods and ending up in a cabin. You’d be forgiven you had seen this all before but you will never guess where this one is heading.
The two leads are good in their roles, comfortable and believable as the couple. And both actors stretch their acting abilities in several different ways. Obviously I don’t want to spoil things but in a little over ten minutes, Mairzy Doats covers a variety of genres.
‘What happens when we die?’ or ‘What happens after we die?’ are questions you don’t think could be wrapped up in a short film. And while I guess they aren’t exactly fully answered, Mairzy Doats has some interesting suggestions. Somehow in a little over ten minutes, this short even managed to get me a little emotional.
Another great addition to the Boston Underground Film festival, Mairzy Doats looks great, is acted well and is truly original. Another one you should be checking out!
