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Film: The Thing on the Shelf
Year: 2018
Director: Mikal
Writer: Mikal
Starring: Aila June Lemond, Jill Kathryn Lemond and Jingles the Elf
Review:
This Christmas, horror short film, I got the opportunity to check out when the writer/director Mikal reached out to me to view and possible review. I was intrigued, as most of the film month has been dedicated to holiday horror or to horror films produced this year. This fell into both categoires so I decided to check it out.
Now this one is quite short. It only runs for a minute and half. We get a young girl, Aila June Lemond, as she is put to bed by her mother, Jill Kathryn Lemond. Before she leaves the room, her mother puts a stuffed elf, that is credited as Jingles, on a shelf in her room. As the young girl tries to fall asleep, this elf might be up to something.
There were a couple of things that struck me while watching this. The first is that it looks beautiful. We have a room that is dark, but it is lit by Christmas lights that are strung up in the room. This did a couple things for the ambience for me in that it looks festive, but it also gives it an eerie vibe. Over top of this, we have bells that are playing a familiar Christmas song. By itself it isn’t scary, but it is slower than normal and over the top of how it is lit, it definitely gives a creepy feel.
The effect of the elf that is used at the end is done practically and I like what they did with it. It isn’t anything too crazy, but it subtle enough. I happen to find that some times keeping something simple makes it that much more eerie and this film definitely does that.
What I kind of look for in short films are do I want to see more or does this have a complete story. I actually would like to see this expanded into a longer story. It definitely has me intrigued.
Now with that said, if you have a couple minutes, I recommend giving this short a viewing. It really isn’t any ground breaking, but in a short time I think it gets across the Christmas holiday while building a creepy atmosphere. It is shot beautifully and the song over top of it is fitting. As I said, I would be interested in seeing more of this story if it was expanded out as it has me intrigued. If you’d like to see this short for yourself, I will have the link below.
My Rating: 7 out of 10