Ghostsitter | Short Film of the Day

Short Film of the Day July 5, 2022

Ghostsitter

By Anil Dhokai with 7

horror · Short Films · english

Amy has found herself in a fix. Following a fall-out with her boyfriend, she has moved back in with her mother. Struggling to make friends or find an end to the isolation, no matter the amount of advice dished out to her by podcasts on similar themes, she seeks out a small job of babysitting.

As the premise is established, we are taken into a bright, sun-lit world of a rosy-cheeked protagonist. This brightness remains consistent throughout, despite the potentially dark developments unfolding before us. It is in this consistency that horror and humor are allowed an efficient coupling in the short film. Amy, on the other hand, is in for a truly shocking surprise when she finds out that the job entails not the looking after of a child, but of indeed a moody, eccentric ghost who refuses to move on.

With an affinity for breaking objects and throwing tantrums if her desires are not met with, our supernatural friend too brings in an unexpected union of two disparate elements - horror and the promise of something that might offer Amy relief from her troubles. The film's world remains marked by a quiet softness, brought to life notably by the actors and their endearing characters, all of which together take the narrative home in a smooth manner.
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I chose the topic for this short because I love haunted house stories. I wrote the script around the house we filmed in. It’s my father-in-law’s house, and after several visits I was like ‘I gotta tell a story here.’ I started brainstorming ideas for a ghost story and came up with the concept of someone being hired to babysit a ghost. The idea kept evolving from there.

Since I knew the location already, I was able to craft each scene for the specific spaces in the house. I also really liked the idea of the babysitter and ghost needing each other which ensured that instead of it just being a haunted house story, it turned into a story of friendship.
Anil DhokaiDirector, Ghostsitter