You can tell I was trying to phone in my blog posts this week, as Other Side of the Box is the second short horror film I have chosen to watch for review. I have often seen this Caleb J. Phillips directed (and co-written) horror when on YouTube as a recommendation, but it was only after my friend recommended I review it that I decided to check it out.
One evening near Christmas a couple, Ben (Nick Tag who co-wrote this) and Rachel (Teagan Rose) are cooking when they are disturbed by the arrival of an ex-friend, Shawn (Josh Schell) who brings with him a gift. He tells Ben to open the box, but upon opening it appears to be empty. Shawn makes a hasty exit, apologising for what he has done. The darkness within the box is perplexing, and after a few experiments it seems the box somehow has no bottom. Then something bad occurs, having looked away, the couple look back to see the top of a human head impossibly peeking out of the small box (Tyler Pochop), a quick read of the card that came with the 'present' and it is revealed that they must never take their eyes off of the box as the being is only able to move should no one be looking at it.
First off, a decent idea for a horror, in terms of rule making it didn't seem too different to something like It Follows, which is no bad thing. This is the second short I've watched this week that actually felt like a small horror film, as opposed to a poor effort basic plot stretched around a central idea. The cast of four were well chosen, especially with Schell, I liked how easily you could infer the friendship ended due to something that occured with Rachel. The man in the box is of course creepy, with much of the middle act revolving around his slow initial emergence.
This all leads into a third act where the stakes got ramped up in a way that was more exciting than I had anticipated, even if you have to ignore some of the film's own self-imposed rules and logic that get broken along the way. Culminates in a perfect way to end the short.
Other Side of the Box was a great little horror film which I could see working equally as well as a feature length. A good idea, and well executed, this was an entertaining fifteen minutes of horror.
SCORE:
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