Bark (2020) - Short Comedy Horror Film Review

While it may have its problems, Bark is still one of the most original short comedy horror films I have seen for a good while. Directed and written by Ryan Irving, this has a ridiculous premise but one that really stood out. I'm still in the throes of my second Covid infection, with today's symptoms having me feel a little tripped out, fitting I guess seeing as how this is 04/20 at the time of typing!

Bark is a black and white comedic horror film that is told from the perspective of a tree (voiced by Irving). The tree laments how he never gets anything exciting happening by him, with people often gravitating to his neighbour Carl the bush. The tree soon gets his wish in the worst way possible however when an axe wielding masked maniac appears chasing a girl, the chase leading the pair right up to him.

It seems a bit strange to say, but the six minute long Bark gets off to a bit of a slow start. For the first minute and a half it is just the tree talking with not much going on apart from different shots of the tree and surrounding area. I thought maybe it was just pure surrealism that was going for, rather than incorporating horror. Of course that all changes with the arrival of the masked madman. Some parts of the comedy here I thought worked really well, I loved the recurring joke of seeing things from Carl's perspective where some type of obnoxiously loud house music is playing constantly. Other parts were not so good, a branch that gets broken off of the tree gets its own voice that had no funny dialogue for instance.

I thought Bark was an original feeling idea, it might not always land with its jokes, but I enjoyed the premise, and the humour did occasionally land. Bark is currently available to stream on the ARROW streaming subscription service.

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