Tags:
Film: The Night Circus
Year: 2016
Director: Eskild Krogh
Writer: Mads Zaar Rissberg
Starring: Kim Sønderholm, Eske Skafsgaard Hjorth and Camilla Fynbo
Review:
This film begins showing a man wake up and pop his head out of a car window, he is played by Kim Sønderholm. He has a stern look on his face and goes back inside.
We then shift to a blurry room where someone holds up a card. It states at the top ‘The Night Circus’ and their motto about calling them and they will take care of it.
Sønderholm arrives in a car with an associate, played by Eske Skafsgaard Hjorth, to what looks to be outside of the city and by a barn. Hjorth takes what looks to be a rug from the trunk. It appears that there is something inside of it though. Sønderholm goes to a hole in the ground that is covered with wood. He opens it and removes a bucket that has calcium oxide in it.
The two men then go out into the woods. They remove a body wrapped in carpet and plastic. It is drug away from the car and Sønderholm produces a book. There is light rain starting to drop. Did the thing in plastic move or is it the rain hitting the plastic?
I have to say that I was given the chance to watch this short when Kim Sønderholm reached out to me on my Horror Review page on Facebook. I can say that I’m definitely glad that he did, I enjoyed the opportunity to view this short film. The first thing that struck me was the scene that is blurring. I like that the title of this short is the same as the business that Sønderholm and Hjorth run. I felt that scene was good enough to be the title card for the short itself actually. The film is given an eerie feel from that scene and gets amplified since there is very little dialogue in general. It makes it easier since this film is Danish produced, but personally I enjoy viewing foreign films with subtitles on. I feel that if the filmmakers wanted, this could be extended to a longer short or even a feature film. I want to know more about the ending and what happened.
There isn’t really much negative I have to say about this short. I did feel that the title card was not really needed and personally thought the person holding up the card was more effective. I can see why they would want to, as the film has something in the background out of focus so not everyone would focus on the card itself. This film has me wanting more, which is a good and bad thing because there are questions that are outstanding. I will give this short credit for that.
Now with that said, this is an 8 minute short film that was very well done. I give the two main actors a lot of credit, because neither of them have dialogue so all of their acting is based on facial expressions. They conveyed the scene using just this. I like the concept. I felt that the music helped to give a creepy feel to the scenes. This did leave me wanting more, which is good. It also leaves me questions, but if they decide to make this a longer short film or even feature length, they have left themselves with that option. If you get a chance, I definitely recommend giving this a viewing.
My Rating: 8 out of 10