Short Film Review: Behind Closed Doors

Behind Closed Doors

Another short film for short film theatre. Today it’s an animated horror. For some reason decent horror short films tend to mostly animated lately. I’m not sure for the reasoning for that is but whatever. Today’s new film is Behind Closed Doors written, directed and animated by Jonathan Button.

The film focuses on a young boy named Gregory. He is afraid of the monster in his closet, that his father insists isn’t real But his father is also an abusive alcoholic that beats both of them. Then when his mother gets hurt Gregory has this sinister idea that the monster and this evil man should meet.

The good? It is a pretty good little horror. The ending kind of creeped me out. How twisted the tale became was insane and it was delivered perfectly. The tone throughout the whole film was quite unsettling. Every moment felt tense and I think good pacing helped with a lot of that. Also the monster looked creepy. It looked like a ghoul out of the old Evil Dead films, which creeped me out as a little kid. And the first glimpse of it is a jump scare that actually works.

The bad? I’m not a big fan of animation. The characters are stiff, looking like paper dolls resembling Monty Python cartoons. The head, body and arms are disjointed. And there is no fluid movement of anything. I’m sure the animator work is hard. I know I made a character blink on a book trailer once and called that a victory. So I’m not going to say they took an easy route. They just didn’t take animation in route that is pleasing to look at.

Overall, the film is creepy as hell and might actually scare you. If you like horror. You won’t regret watching this.

3 ½ Flicks out of four.

Overall Rating: A Scary Tale About Monsters in The Closet

Director: Jonathan Button

Run Time: 6:01 minute

Genre: Horror

Where To Find It: Youtube