Waffle (I) (2020) User Reviews

"Better than real."

[morrison-dylan-fan · 6/10 · 23 June 2020]

After recently seeing the anthology title Scare Package, (2019-also reviewed)I was excited to learn that Shudder was this year hosting the short films from the Etheria film festival,leading to me tasting the first short.

Note:Some small spoilers in review.

View on the film:

Returning to short films after a run directing TV shows, director Carlyn Hudson & cinematographer Richard Diaz charge up a quirky Horror atmosphere,as the bright colors of Katie and Kerry's sleepover are jabbed by swift zoom-ins and phone beeps, locking on that all is not as friendly as it seems.

Co-producing,writing and starring in the film, Kerry Barker and Katie Marovitch pack the short run time with a impressive level of creativity, via giving the psycho friend Horror sub-genre a amusing Sci-Fi twist, in a phone app keeping friendships on a timer which Marovitch uses to turn Katie kooky on a pile of waffles.

good work

[Kirpianuscus · 13 July 2020]

One of no bad short horrors, imaginative, ironic in profound sense, about reality, social media, money and hypocrisy and, sure, about loneliness. Two friends, an evening, a lot of secrets and creepy facts, the classic recipe and reasonable end. Nothing original but well working.

Brightly engaging oddity

[bob the moo · 16 August 2020]

There are lots of different ideas and styles crammed into this short film; I'm not entirely sure that it works as a whole, but it is certainly interesting and engaging to see it have a go. The plot starts in a girly friendship, but with something odd within it. We soon discover that it is a paid relationship - like some sort of 'hire a friend' thing, although we don't know the detail particularly. It develops from there into weirder territory, being funny, dark, and violent as it goes.

The consistent thread running through it is how over-the-top the lead character is; her manic nature is reflected in the bright colour of the home - and the film plays this up (as opposed to making it darker and more sinister). The slightly absurd content gives it the comedic edge that helps it work for the most part, before drawing in horror sort of. Again, I'm not sure it totally works as a whole, because there isn't a commitment to making the ideas all work - the 'hire a friend' thing being a good example. It is fundamental to the film and seems to be an idea it is interested in, but at the same time it feels like just a device; reducing it to a device means that the other aspects of the film must be the focus - but then it feels like the idea is most of the time, although if that is the case then why does it feel like a device. I will admit that this only bothered me after the film and not while I was enjoying it, because the tone, pace, and changes within it all helped it stay involving and feel quite fresh.

It isn't as fun or as clever as it seems, but it is packaged very well, and does have plenty of good stuff within it - even if I do think it didn't totally pull it all together in the end.