Meat Friend (2022) - Short Comedy Horror Film Review

Meat Friend is an eight minute long comedy horror film that has won four awards. Directed and co-written by Izzy Lee (The Obliteration of the Chickens), this is a ridiculous premise, with this ridiculousness played very heavily into. I'm typing this review while probably inflicted with my second bout of Covid (it turns out it was), so apologies if this seems badly written as I feel God awful!

Young Billie (Marnie McKendry - Tales of Halloween segment 'Trick') is surprised to discover that after trying to cook some hamburger meat in the microwave it has taken on a sentient form. This small creature (voiced by Steve Johanson - My Monster) tells the girl it is named Meat Friend and that it is going to offer her some life lessons. Meat Friend does not appear to be a good person however, and appears to have a bit of the criminal about it.

Meat Friend is set-out like a children's TV show and felt like a horror take on Sesame Street. There are only the three characters to be found here, with Megan Duffy (Holidays segment 'New Year's') rounding out the cast as Billie's mom. The titular creature is represented as a puppet, and one that has minimal movement, only really able to open its large mouth slightly. This amateur design is purposeful however, with that playing into the comedy. From the moment it begins to tell Billie the importance of making a shiv for dealing with snitches it became clear it was a bit of degenerate. Throughout the short it is shown snorting drugs off a table, swearing, and trying to get Billie to partake in crimes. I loved its deep voice, the recurring joke of it referring to Billie as 'Children' (as if it were speaking to an audience) and I thought it was fun that it appears to be an imaginary friend due to the mom not being able to see it.
I liked how this ended, but I did feel that the creature could have been more of a threat to the child than it actually was, and the lack of much special effects did make some scenes not work as well as they could have done.

It might not set the world on fire, but I thought Meat Friend was entertaining for what it was. While not laugh out loud funny there were plenty of moments I found humorous, and the small cast were decent enough. Meat Friend is currently available to watch on the ARROW streaming subscription service.

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