The film weaves a narrative of mystery and horror without taking refuge in the regular elements of darkness or shrill background scores. It takes its time building up to finally achieve a well-formed crescendo and climax. A writer finds himself at an Airbnb which has recently witnessed the death of the owner of the property. Consequently, it is now available for an unusually low rent. The protagonist is quick to make use of this opportunity, and moves in for a temporary stay as he struggles to finish a writing project. However, soon things take an unexpected turn as he finds a stranger lurking around the house and his surroundings. Throughout its duration, the film leads the viewer in a specific direction with its breadcrumb-trail. Will you find yourself going down the correct path or will you be surprised by the twist that awaits you at the conclusion of the film?

Old Haunt | Short Film of the Day

The film is sci-fi, satire, surrealism and absurdity all thrown in together. The stuff of nightmares meets a strong commentary on society's fixation with outer appearances, and thus is born Caterpillarplasty. Now it should be clear at the onset that the film is not for those with a weak-stomach. It will disorient the viewer on several levels with its disconcerting elements, portrayed both as a suggestion as well as explicitly through the visuals and sound. As a proud consumer enters a spotlessly white and glossy establishment for treatments to enhance physical appearance, he is greeted by a attentive man with his unnaturally broad (and unforgettably wicked) grin and disturbingly neat appearance. The narrative further takes it satirical commentary ahead by revealing what it is that the protagonist truly wants and the extent to which he is willing to go to achieve it. While a massive establishment makes seemingly huge profits, evident by the size of their clientele, a patient here and there might struggle with medical complications. Convulsions in a person next to you? Of course the expert knows which concoction of chemicals to be pumped into their body to ease it, and then draw your attention away from it all. The film holds the mirror to a culture where the supremacy of outward beauty and looks reigns free. As lines between vanity and insanity blur, the film does its bit to adequately communicate to the viewer this particularly grotesque aspect of contemporary society.

Caterpillarplasty | Short Film of the Day

The music video triggers several ideas to pace through your mind while trying to truly comprehend the visuals on screen. The palette is cool, the colours minimal and the location stunning. It is seemingly the story of a protagonist and his relationship with a horse. There is a surreal, otherworldly, abstract emotion that can be associated with the whole video, only further supplemented by its mesmerising and closely controlled vocals. The writing and the visuals exhibit a sophisticated weaving together, with not even a single extra moment wasted on either. The narrative takes its time to build, and yet does not under-utilise any component or element to put forth its message. Both the video and the song are essentially about power, race and the colour of the skin perhaps. It is a reminder to not trivialise someone's well-directed anger and emotion and simply render their discontent a "lover's quarrel". The lyrics demand an equality which seems to be missing when a disagreement is defined in this manner, hinting that it is one of equals. However, how can it be a conversation of equals if even the mere presence of this discrimination is brushed aside? The video raises this question in a poignant manner and leaves the viewer grappling with its potential answers.

Quarrel | Short Film of the Day

There is no dearth of content on gender which is why choosing it as a predominant theme of your short film also exposes one to the danger of it being threadbare. Hold Your Breath, fortunately, steers clear of this trap and instead provides a convincing and needfully disconcerting account of a date gone wrong. The film opens with a girl arriving at the house of a boy she is meeting in person for the first time. Her unease and caution, which accompanies the visit to a stranger's house, is clear for she has chosen bring her best friend along. The situation, which unwittingly turns into a double date of sorts, also helps to accentuate the contrast between how men and women approach the same situation - one of rejection of sexual advances. The film does a notable job of capturing the nuances and subtleties of gender dynamics without giving in to voyeurism or sentimentalism. On the whole, it becomes a poignant comment on sexual abuse and molestation, reminding the viewer that it's more rampant and normalised than we allow ourselves to believe.

Hold Your Breath | Short Film of the Day

The documentary has a difficult premise - the nexus of art and war. However it achieves the most brilliant execution for it because what is war if not simply a dance between soldiers and civilians (as the film itself goes ahead to portray in one of its sequences). Exit 12 is about a dance company of the same name founded and now run by people most intricately connected with different wars the US has been part of over the last few decades. From Vietnam to Iraq to Afghanistan, there is a glimpse into what they did to those who either fought in them at the front or participated as family members and loved ones of those who were in the line of fire. The dance sequences are weaved most effortlessly into the narrative. Other than being a display of exceptional skill and seamless visuals, they further succeed in delivering their bit of the story most poignantly. Using these, the film follows the experiences of three characters and how they use dance to make sense of their post-war reality. At the heart of the narrative is a moving question - when you are trained to kill, how do you come back and embrace your reality as a human? How does one reconcile the horrors of war with their day-to-day existence? Consequently, without spelling anything out explicitly, the film becomes an engagement with the post traumatic stress disorders veterans grapple with. Mental health and the desire to end one's own life find echoes for the viewer that are loud and clear. However, despite it all, there is a sense of hope and empowerment which is invoked at the idea of people coming together as a collective to share their experiences in an attempt to successfully assuage their pain. It is this idea of hope which finally ties the film together in a cohesive and comprehensive way allowing the intense emotional experience to be moving in a constructive manner.

Exit 12 | Short Film of the Day

Whether or not the film intended it, it manages to convey more than a single story through its layered narrative. A nurse, played by Gemma Whelan of the Game of Thrones fame, finds herself making her way into an eerie house which is in a state of complete abandon. The only other inhabitant of it is her patient, a bed-ridden, elderly woman. The film builds itself slowly, maintaining a pace which strikes the right balance between revealing and concealing adequate amounts of the plot. As the nurse gets to taking care of chores and looking after her patient, she stumbles across a door which wasn't previously visible on the wall. Just when she is about to succeed at opening it, indistinct noises from inside forces her to not only shut it tightly, but block its path completely to ensure it never manages to open itself. Of course this isn't the end of the road for our protagonist, instead only the beginning. The door begins to follow her around the house. However, her most difficult obstacle is perhaps something else, as suggested by the haunting, most jarring climax and the conclusion of the film. Additionally, the image of the door struggling to open itself, but constantly being pushed back by the protagonist in her fear of the unknown, becomes a notable message about one's internal struggles to shut out what is unknown to them, even if it potentially holds the key to their escape from a far more horrifying situation.

The Blue Door | Gemma Whelan | Short Film of the Day

The short film is a skilfully disconcerting exploration of maternal love and the disturbing manner in which it tears a family apart. It opens with a grim shot of a red-cheeked child in a coffin, invoking a sense of morbidity that would come to haunt the entirety of the narrative. Unable to let go of their dead son, the couple finds itself making their way to a doll-maker. The latter can briefly make them forget about the death of their son, with a fair warning to never let the illusion overpower their sense of reality. As a horror story would have it, the characters of course overlook the warning, or find themselves incapable of paying heed to it, leading to dire consequences. The Dollmaker is a deeply engaging story, sure to satisfy admirers of horror and otherwise. Albeit not entirely fresh, it is an interesting and engaging comment on the indomitable human desire to bring someone back from the dead and to seek transitory relief, as illusory as it might be, from loss and pain, even at the cost of complete self-annihilation.

The Dollmaker | Short Film of the Day

This 2D, hand-drawn animation by Pixar is a wonderful union of two very disparate characters and how they finally find a common ground for companionship. The film is an exploration of instinctive distrust we often inculcate within ourselves without realising it. This is coupled with an engagement with vulnerability as well as unexpected friendships. Along with it all, the film also gives a glimpse into animal abuse, while effortlessly busting myths about pit bulls being dangerously aggressive. The story is of a kitten and a pit bull, the former extremely apprehensive of the latter in the face of all his attempts for them to be friends. It is finally an act of kindness that brings them together and thus begins a deeply endearing tale of the two overcoming the obstacles in their respective paths. There is fearlessness and trust that the characters find in themselves, aided by each other in the most heartwarming ways. And it is in overcoming these internal hurdles that their true victory lies, suggests the narrative with its conclusion.

Kitbull | Pixar | Short Film of the Day

The film opens on a lovely, light-hearted note, completely beguiling and leaving the viewer unprepared for the sinister plot developments that await them at the most unexpected corner. The laughter and giggles soon give way to an awkward unease that come to constitute the power dynamics of three teenaged girls. There is a suggestion of the threats that girls alone at night are left vulnerable to in a patriarchal set-up where their identities are often reduced to their sexuality. This is presented to the viewer in the form of three young men they soon encounter. However, the plot still continues to revolve around the discomfort that is growing among the girls, alongside the thrill and excitement of breaking a few rules - all three parties unequal participants in these emotions. The narrative manages to invoke a powerful delineation of the concern of a girl who is insecure and worried about her friend as well as the arrival of a new member that potentially threatens to shake the security of their duo. The plot finally comes to revolve around a single decision that would change their lives forever. It is perhaps also a remote comment on how, along with patriarchy, young women themselves can hurt each other while being preoccupied with a sense of competition with each other that society has conditioned them to internalise. There is also a reminder of the recklessness of teenage life which might result in rash decisions, while not always conveying at first the gravity of the consequences they are capable of leading to.

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