Frightfest 2023: ‘Pareidolia’ Review
Stars: Diane Franklin, Graham Cole, Carolyn Pickles, Joe Acres, Dawn Perllman, Stuart Morris, Charlotte Grice, Sandy Johnson | Written by Aiden Truss | Directed by Aaron Truss
When director Aaron Truss got in touch regarding checking out his latest film, the short Pareidolia, I jumped in feet first with a resounding yes. Why? Well, Truss had produced a great documentary on the VHS era, Cult of VHS, and this short film starred one of my all-time favourite actresses Diane Franklin… a performer whose roles in Better Off Dead, The Last American Virgin and later Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure had, I’m sure, shaped my idea of the perfect girlfriend and whose roles in Summer Girl and Amityville 2 stirred something in my teenage libido too!
For those unfamiliar with the term, Pareidolia is the scientific term for seeing meaningful images in random visual patterns. It’s what the Rorschach inkblot test is based on, it’s also responsible for people seeing Jesus in a crisp… Hell, even the “Man on the Moon” concept is based on pareidolia – people seeing a face in the craters of the moon’s surface! But what does that have to do with this short film?
Well, Pareidolia is at the very core of this story. Only in this case seeing things in other objects isn’t some kind of visual trickery. No, in this case it’s the thing that haunts our dreams, the shape in the dark, the monster under the bed… Pareidolia is the very thing that we fear!
At the centre of this short is Sinead (Diane Franklin), who is studying the phenomena and whose life becomes consumed by the very idea of pareidolia – she sees faces wherever she looks, only is it all in her head? Is she literally just seeing things? Or is something looking back? Sinead story is punctuated by scenes featuring Father Cavanagh (Graham Cole, the legendary PC Stamp from The Bill!), who’s called to look at a strange body in the morgue and who, seemingly, knows a lot more about the dangers pareidolia presents than anyone else – including Sinead.
Running at a swift 13 minutes, Pareidolia keeps the story moving and keeps the audience’s attention throughout, right up until the stunning, jaw-dropping conclusion, which reveals the “truth” about Sinead’s pareidolia and proves Father Cavanagh’s suspicions correct.
Whilst the story is tight, what also helps keep the audience’s attention are the performances. Diane Franklin, in the brief time we see her on screen, proves that she’s still got that “it” factor that made her teenage roles so mesmerising, Only now her age and experience have also given her gravitas, which means she’s now a triple-threat. But the big surprise is Graham Cole – he was always a great stalwart of The Bill over the years, really holding the show together at times. But given the chance to stretch his legs and explore a new character, even in such a short space of time, proves he’s one of the country’s most underrated actors. Period.
A remarkable short film that I would LOVE to see expanded to a feature, Pareidolia is a must-see for genre fans!
***** 5/5
Pareidolia screened as part of this year’s Frightfest London.
