Short Film Reviews: From 1 Minute to 10 Minutes

The Tattooist:

A torturous tattoo parlor is the first destination on this 10-stop review train. The Tattooist barely reaches the 1-minute mark, so it doesn't waste time getting to the sinister secret that the tattooist (played by Yanhu Wong) is hiding behind his neon sign and flower wallpaper. Even if you're not a horror fanatic, you'll probably guess what it is before you even start the movie. What The Tattooist lacks in originality, it makes up for with its style. For a short film helmed by a first-time director and made on an estimated $10,000, The Tattooist packs quite the visual punch.

Filmed at Scream Zone Beijing, which features an escape room bearing this movie's name, The Tattooist has a great horror atmosphere. After a vibrant opening with a soft-pink-lit setting and jazz-influenced soundtrack, we're treated to a grisly look at the violent truth behind the tattoo shop. Despite the limited funds, the gore effects are impressive, with the cinematography and music being just as good. Combined, the reveal about the shop's underbelly is appropriately grim and grimy and the ending is darkly comedic. It may not be anything genre-shaking and a bulk of the film is a montage of scenes that would fit well into the trailer for a Hostel knockoff. But for a micro-shot of mayhem, The Tattooist makes stellar use of its meager budget.

Score: 7 out of 10 iron maidens.

Over/Under:

Now, this horror short may be a few seconds longer than The Tattooist. But it was made on even more of a pittance--an estimated $1,000--and has an even more generic story to tell. If you're a horror fan who's browsed a two-sentence horror story or two, you'll know exactly where the movie's going once the father (Darin Heames) goes to check under his daughter's (Lula Jessup) bed for monsters. And once the twist hits, Over/Under's constricted budget becomes glaringly clear. The twist's horrific subject is kept entirely off-screen, and while Darin Heames nails his character's "tired dad" energy, his reaction to that subject is almost laughably weird.

Still, for a bare-bones horror tale, Over/Under isn't all bad. Heames is likable as an exasperated but loving father and Lula Jessup gives a precious performance as the frightened daughter. If you're looking for a spooky bedtime horror short, you could do worse than curl up with Over/Under.

Score: 4 out of 10 red flashlights.

The Last Rose:

Now for an action film with a romantic center. Set in what appears to be a bizarre post-apocalyptic universe, two warring tribes duke it out while a rookie fighter from one tribe (David Kim) fights to woo an experienced warrior from the other (Kate Lann). Best described as Romeo & Juliet set during the apocalypse, The Last Rose is an average movie kicked up a notch by its unique aesthetic. The varied costume design for the warriors is interesting and it's clear the cast is having a blast. Will Tomi and Kalista Tazlin dig into their roles as the tribes' ruthless leaders while the actors playing the tribe members bring all the necessary energy when it comes time to start trading blows. The fight choreography isn't groundbreaking, but the cast makes it work with how much enthusiasm they bring to it.

David Kim and Kate Lann do just as well depicting the cute romance between their characters and the way it ends is pretty sweet. My only major complaint is that it would've been better had the movie been without dialogue. The confrontation between the leaders is fine, but that random line from the lovestruck rookie ("I have my doubts") doesn't make any sense in the context of what we see. Overall, though, The Last Rose is enjoyable in its simplicity and makes for a decent three minutes of war, violence, and star-crossed love.

Score: 5 out of 10 pigtailed hostages.

Memory Box:

Don't let the colorful animation and anthropomorphized protagonists fool you; Memory Box tells a heavy story. While it opens on a young Myra (Morgan Berry) drawing a picture of her and her best friend Galen (Sean Chiplock), jumping to the future shows how far they've fallen due to their shared drug addiction. Starting with an innocent scene set in a child's bedroom, Memory Box quickly throws the viewer into the deep end. The incredible animation takes you along for the ride as Myra has her downward spiral, presenting a mix of vibrant colors and dimmer hues to correlate with Myra and Galen's fall from grace. The music serves a similar purpose. It begins with a tender lullaby before segueing into unnerving chords.

But what's really bound to pull your heartstrings is Morgan Berry's voice acting. Berry pours all the emotion into Myra's trembling voice and pleading desperation. She wants to escape her problems through her childhood memories, but her tragic reality poisons them. Even if you can't relate to the pain of drug dependency, Myra's tearful exclamations of fear and anguished desire to return to simpler times are sure to resonate with many viewers. Sean Chiplock does just as great a job voicing Galen. Despite the toxic influence he's shown to have on Myra, Chiplock's delivery will have you feeling empathy for Galen. As creatively illustrated as it is poignantly written/directed, Memory Box might just leave you in need of a tissue box.

Score: 8 out of 10 abandoned school buses.

Slash-in-the-Box:

While the last "box" movie on this list may've made you cry, this one aims to make you scream. It centers around a man (Tyler Hollinger) who is excited to have found a jack-in-the-box like the one he had as a kid. His wife (Elizabeth Masucci) is less thrilled by the find. When night falls, both of them will learn just how right she was to be wary of the antique toy. If you've seen Chucky or any other evil toy horror movie from the past decade, nothing about Slash-in-the-Box will surprise you. Just like Over/Under, this horror short plays out exactly the way you expect with virtually no deviations. The protagonists being generically dimwitted horror movie characters (with bland dialogue and acting to back them up) adds insult to injury.

Without the likable leads that gave Over/Under a boost, Slash-in-the-Box slips behind its shorter counterpart. Nick Everhart's direction is competent (apart from a cheap mirror jump scare he pulls out right before the finale) and the gore effects at the very end are pretty good. But while Slash-in-the-Box may not be the worst horror short film out there, it's definitely not the best Crypt TV has to offer.

Score: 3 out of 10 vintage Barbies.

Dead End:

Made for $1,250 in 48 hours, Dead End follows Frank Bishop (Eric Winter) as his suicide attempt is interrupted by a pair of carjackers (Ivan Sergei and Summer Glau) who force Frank at gunpoint to be their getaway driver. Befitting the tight time constraints it was made under, Dead End is a fast-footed slice of action. The plot gets off the ground quicker than it takes for Frank's OD to turn into a hostage situation. In addition to acting as a co-producer, Eric Winter gives a great lead performance as a broken man with nothing left to lose. With a lethal dose of pharmaceuticals coursing through his body, Frank couldn't care less if he instead meets his maker via bullet. He's casually flippant with his surprise captors, and Winter portrays that attitude as effortlessly as he portrays Frank's quiet grief.

Ivan Sergei and Summer Glau aren't as consistent in their roles as the carjacking couple. Both of their deliveries become wooden in places, Glau more often than Sergei. Nevertheless, they each do a good job taking on the personalities of a crazed hothead criminal (Sergei) and his meek accomplice (Glau). Sergei in particular digs his teeth into his role with all the aggressive bravado needed to play a dirty coward who only wishes he were a tough guy. For all of his threats and as much as he brandishes that gun, he doesn't seem keen to pull the trigger when the occasion calls for it.

SPOILER ALERT While I didn't exactly see the twist ending coming, it's not a particularly innovative one and I can see other viewers calling it in advance. More importantly, though, is how the twist doesn't make a lot of sense. If Frank's family had been murdered while he was at work as he claimed, I could understand why his dying dream would be taking down a pair of criminals. You could argue in that scenario that the male robber is a stand-in for the person who killed Frank's family and he's having a revenge fantasy. It would explain some of Frank's remarks as he suddenly turns the tables on his abductors. But with the daydream-within-a-daydream sequence indicating that Frank's family died in a car accident while he was behind the wheel, the dream's meaning becomes muddled. Why would Frank want "payback" against imaginary criminals if his family died because of an accident? If the dream was meant to symbolize Frank blaming himself for the accident, it would make more sense for it to end with him getting shot or crashing the car. Spoilers Over

While the ending is a mess and two-thirds of the acting could've used some work, Dead End has a strong leading man and enough action to keep the average viewer watching from sorrowful start to sobering finish. If you're a fan of Eric Winter's more recent work on The Rookie, his work in this Producers Guild Weekend Short Contest entry is sure to blow you away too.

Score: 6.5 out of 10 church robberies.

The Love That it Takes:

It's another short film about a man haunted by his past. The Love That it Takes sees Jack (Strike Her Dead's Marc Herrmann) as he reminisces about the beautiful relationship he once had with Emily (Roxanne Morrison). While it sits at the 7-minute mark on IMDb, the film is almost as light on plot as Over/Under and The Tattooist. It's essentially an extended flashback sequence as Jack looks back at a time when he and Emily were lying in bed discussing the idyllic future they had in mind for themselves. There's a somberness to the reflection, though. After all, the opening minutes reveal that the happiness between Jack and Emily isn't going to last.

It's once the film delves into Jack and Emily's relationship that the film spreads its wings. The pace keeps things moving at a steady pace and the dialogue sounds like an authentic conversation between two people in love. Marc Herrmann and Roxanne Morrison share natural chemistry as starry-eyed lovers, with both exuding a lot of charm individually. As the pair lay together and talk about childhood dreams and what kinds of pets they want to have, Herrmann and Morrison will have you falling under the spell of Jack and Emily's wholesome love and pure hearts. Jack is an affectionate man unafraid of opening up about his feelings while Emily is a sweet girl who gives as much love and support to Jack as he gives to her. SPOILER ALERT That makes it all the sadder to see the current state Jack and Emily are in. Jack is visibly struggling to hold himself together while Emily has become embittered by life to the point of snapping at Jack for taking too long in the bathroom. It's a disheartening transformation that Herrmann and Morrison do a great job portraying. Spoilers Over

The cinematography and music also lend a hand in helping the movie's emotions flourish. Lots of closeup camera angles are used to symbolize the intimacy of Jack and Emily's bond while the music and lighting give the flashback an ethereal dream-like quality that foreshadows Jack and Emily's fate. The only time the production values dip is when the credits are played over a lively pop song--a track at complete odds with the way The Love That it Takes ends. Besides that, the film is a touching look at a beautiful relationship tarnished by time and circumstance. Acting as director and producer in addition to playing the star role, Marc Herrmann works with his crew to bring his simple but stirring story to life.

Score: 7 out of 10 pet detectives.

Oasis:

Alone and trekking across the harsh desert, a man (Hein de Vries) searches for the water he needs to stay alive. But retrieving it may come at a steep price. While inspired by the 2018 Cape Town water crisis, Oasis could just as easily be interpreted as an allegory for the chaos caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. It tells a tale of survival that segues into a message about keeping one's humanity in the face of great strife. The opening scene perfectly captures the feeling of being stranded in the middle of the desert. The absence of music and use of long camera shots illustrate the soul-crushing isolation of such a desolate predicament. The use of natural sound over an artificial action soundtrack continues after The Runner--Hein de Vries' character--finds the water he's looking for, only to be ambushed by a female survivor (dubbed The Opponent and played by Toni Jean Erasmus).

Apart from a brief moment when the sound effects don't sync up with the motions, the fight choreography is well-done, with Vries and Erasmus diving headfirst into the fray. They have no dialogue, but convey solely through movement, facial expressions, and grunting the desperation that drives their characters to near animalistic savagery. The lack of dialogue makes the first spoken word of the film (which comes from an unexpected character) and the subsequent change in mood all the more powerful. Vries and Erasmus continue giving strong performances following this plot turn, which leads to a bittersweet but uplifting ending. If you're a fan of action movies with lots of hand-to-hand combat, Oasis will give you your fill. And if current events have you feeling weary, it might even provide some temporary relief from your low spirits.

Score: 8 out of 10 water detecting staffs.

Oasis:

Fun fact: the previous film on this list wasn't originally going to be there. But then I came across that movie and saw it was listed on IMDb as being 8 minutes long as opposed to this movie's 9. So of course, I couldn't pass up the opportunity to review two identically titled short films back to back. This Oasis switches the setting from the desert to a country town. While driving out to a summer ranch job, Max (Aidan Kahn) spots a beautiful girl (Tiera Skovbye) outside a gas station. Captivated by the lovely stranger, Max enjoys a fantasy about rescuing her from a bleak life in the backwoods. While the previous Oasis was a sci-fi flick, this Oasis has all the markings of a classic Hallmark rom-com. It's got attractive leads, a small town setting, a Meet Cute, and a romantic montage.

It's what Oasis does with those romance tropes that sets it apart from all the Hallmark content they bring to mind. It's clear from the minute Tiera Skovbye's character (tellingly credited as simply "The Girl") enters the picture that the film is going down the road of deconstruction. The shots of the girl when Max is admiring her are conspicuously cinematic and frequently appeal to the male gaze. It alludes to how Max's interest in being this country girl's "knight in shining armor" is based purely on looks and preconceived notions about the South. Because she's a cute girl wearing Daisy Dukes in the boonies, Max assumes she must be leading an unhappy existence as the unwilling wife of a cruel drunkard. The dreamily shot montage further shows how shallow Max's attraction is, as does the fact that the girl never appears to be speaking during this sequence. Whether Max knows it or not, she's just a pretty blonde prop in his fantasy of living a Hollywood love story.

The ending is where all of this deconstruction comes full circle. SPOILER ALERT Max's assumptions are swiftly disproven once it turns out his "dream girl" is actually a well-off Californian with a boyfriend (played by Gus Drake). Not only that, but she's shown to have her own misguided views on Max, assuming from his outer appearance that he's a miserable man doomed to spend his whole life stuck in a "shithole." It's an amusing conclusion as Max leaves the encounter dumbstruck and humbled after starting the movie cracking a bunch of redneck jokes. Spoilers Over As for the acting, Skovbye and Aidan Kahn (who also wrote and directed Oasis) work well with their silent scenes together in the montage, playing up the saccharine fantasy of it all. But while Skovbye does well when it comes time to talk, Kahn's opening dialogue to his friend Kyle is pretty stiff as he tries to sell Max as an awkward "city boy." Aside from that hitch, Oasis is a charmingly playful sendup of idealized love and exploration of how appearances are often deceiving. While David Wayne Smith's Oasis was a gritty affair, Aidan Kahn's Oasis is as soft and inviting as warm flapjacks.

Score: 7.5 out of 10 green cowgirl boots.

The Story of 90 Coins:

We finish this list with another short film directed by Michael Wong. It's a love story, but whereas the last movie of this list played around with the tropes of the genre, The Story of 90 Coins follows those tropes to the letter. It starts with Chen Wen (Zhuang Zhiqi) being proposed to by her boyfriend Wang Yuyang (Dongjun Han). When she expresses apprehension about the idea, Wang Yuyang strikes a deal with Chen Wen: if she still doesn't want to marry him after 90 days, he'll let her go. What happens to them after those 90 days? You'll have to watch to see. The Story of 90 Coins is like a hybrid of Oasis (the Adrian Kahn one) and The Love That it Takes. Like Oasis, it's comparable to a Hallmark romance, and like The Love That it Takes, it follows a couple as their relationship dramatically changes.

But unlike The Love That it Takes, the chemistry between Chen Wen and Wang Yuyang lacks the power needed to make the story work. The opening scene gets them off to a bad start with Wang Yuyang's awkward proposals and Chen Wen's body language throughout the exchange. Rather than just being uncertain about marrying Wang Yuyang, it seems as though Chen Wen is uncomfortable just being around him. The only times the pair appear happy together is when we're flashed back to moments from their past, which are also moments where Zhuang Zhiqi and Dongjun Han's performances are the strongest. Others include whenever their characters are at their most emotive or vulnerable. But even all-around excellent actors would have trouble selling the poorly developed and toxic relationship between Chen Wen and Wang Yuyang.

WARNING: Spoilers Below

What do I mean by toxic? I mean that for the first half of the film, Wang Yuyang sends up a bunch of red flags proving that Chen Wen was onto something about not wanting to marry him. He's aggressively jealous of her friendship with co-worker Andre (Jose Acosta). He expresses nothing resembling support for her career. He screams at her over the possibility of her pursuing a job opportunity in Paris. And after he begrudgingly decides to attend Chen Wen's work conference, he blows up over seeing her with Andre and storms off, more or less accusing the woman he supposedly loves of cheating. While Andre was being overly friendly with Chen Wen, it's still gross how Wang Yuyang reacts like Andre's flirting was her fault. He follows this up by telling Chen Wen that she "owes him 90 days" when she rightfully decides to break up with him and go to Paris. This suggests that he not only refuses to take responsibility for driving his girlfriend away, but that those 90 days of romance were purely to goad Chen Wen into marriage. To make matters worse? Those are the last words Wang Yuyang says to Chen Wen after their split.

It would seem The Story of 90 Coins was heading towards an empowering ending, with Chen Wen rediscovering herself and coming to realize that leaving Wang Yuyang was a difficult but necessary decision. With some retooling of his character, Andre could've even become Chen Wen's supportive second love to contrast Wang Yuyang's callous indifference to her ambitions as a fashion designer. Instead, Chen Wen uncovers the coins Wang Yuyang gave her for each of the 90 days, recounts the memories attached to them, and tearfully comes to regret the breakup. This could've made for an effective tearjerker finale: Chen Wen looking back on her first love, sad that it's over and regretful over how it came to a bitter end. But seeing it framed as though she made a mistake (or "broke her promise") by letting Wang Yuyang go is infuriating. It absolves the man of all the wrongdoings that brought about the breakup, with his grand romantic gestures being treated like they excuse how possessive he would grow to become. The fact that one of Wang Yuyang's coin notes has him saying he doesn't want other men to be nice towards Chen Wen says it all.

Spoilers Over

In lesser flaws, the dialogue alternates between wooden and saccharine, with few lines coming out unscathed. This only adds to the burden carried by Zhuang Zhiqi and Dongjun Han, who already have enough weight on their backs. Both actors do great work when the script gives them enough to work with and the behind-the-scenes crew is similarly on point. The direction/cinematography is crisp and does its best to maintain the romantic atmosphere, as does the music. But with a wonky script and a lead couple you won't root to see live happily ever after, The Story of 90 Coins is one with too many tattered pages to enjoy. At least it can say it's nowhere near as problematic as 365 Days...

Score: 3.5 out of 10 owl pillows.

Overall:

For this time-based short film review list, the scores remain within the 3-8 range. Memory Box and the David Wayne Smith-directed Oasis occupy the top half of that scale while Slash-in-the-Box and The Story of 90 Coins lie at the bottom. The middle-of-the-roaders for this list are Over/Under and The Last Rose, two films whose dedicated cast members make up for where their stories run low on steam. All in all, it's a healthy list for anyone needing short movies to watch during a 15-minute work break or an Uber ride home. So if you have a few spare minutes and want some brisk entertainment, this list could have what you're looking for!