The Artifice (2014) User Reviews

Excellent Short

[onlythusfar · 7/10 · 20 May 2017]

How different we humans are ! One sees something valuable, where another only sees trash. I think, that it all goes back to our upbringing; what our parents valued, our religious indoctrination, or lack thereof, our schooling. I actually found this short film very tense and scary. Everything starts out so normal; a man's sadness, his loneliness, a difficult day. He tries to console himself by doing normal things; listening to his favourite music, making himself some food. I feel his pain.

Then, there's an unexpected knock on the door at ten o'clock at night.

The man is surprised. He goes to the door,and there sees a small child

on his doorstep, his face hidden by a "hoodie". The man attempts

to find out the little one's needs. But this is no ordinary little one. Oh no ! The mood of the film completely changes.

Best horror short

[pengucool · 10/10 · 20 July 2018]

I am a huge horror fan, when I watched this short I was amazed at the quality of the short, the plot was perfect and the acting was awesome. At first I thought I was watching a full length movie, it was that good, I liked it so much I wished it were longer, like a full movie.

Exceedingly lame

[Snootz · 1/10 · 13 May 2017]

When a short has a rating of 8.7 from 13 people and not one written review, you can be assured those people were somehow involved in the making of the film.

I save 1-star reviews for the worst flicks. This crosses that threshold for two reasons: 1) excessive and gratuitous F-bombs that screamed out "I can't write a better script than this" and 2) being just plain lame.

I understand that certain language has embedded itself in our society today and is unfortunately an increasingly common tool among film-makers. But when that language becomes the primary dialog in the script to the point it takes away from the story, that's when it proves the script writer and director likely couldn't think of anything more intelligent to say.

As far as the plot, this is a film in which I could actually tell you the entire story right now (I won't of course) and it wouldn't detract from the film at all. The reason is because if you've read the summary of the film, you've read everything the film presents. There is no lead-up, no climax, no explanation, no ending. It's just a "scary boy with black eyes tries to get in a house" short. The title of the film is misleading. There is no "artifact" that I could see anywhere, no cause or purpose, no resolution. It's just a very lame "Oh, look at the actor kid wearing black contacts and someone blackened out some of his teeth". That's the point that comes across-- a poor makeup job and an absolutely pointless story.

The only saving grace of this entire flick is the acting. All of the actors do a rather good job-- especially with the dialog they're given. Beyond that, this is a loser... only worthy of a review to let others know that yes, you can pre-recover 12 minutes of your life by giving this a skip and doing something interesting. This isn't even a good "preview" into a potential movie. It isn't scary, it isn't interesting; it's just a dive into a dialog cesspool and a belly-flop into a swimming pool with the cover still on it.

One-star, definitely.

How do I watch this

[migizi-79352 · 9 November 2020]

I don't know how to watch it but it looks really interesting