Daphne is a new short three minute found footage horror film from North Carolina based indie filmmaker Caulkdraggin (Ryan McGee), someone whose work has gotten over 75 million views on TikTok. I checked out some of his short form horror stories on there and was impressed with the quality of them.
Daphne Root stars as the titular Daphne, a young woman who has been given a unique opportunity by Professor Caulkdraggin (Caulkdraggin of course). Excited for this unexplained event, she has gotten her friend to film her thoughts on this as she walks through a busy park.
There is heavy use of digital effects here, it was relatively recently I was watching the dull Karen the Beauty Queen Butcher and lambasting the terrible digital effects. Here, while similar types of digital effect is used, it looks markedly better and much more impressive. These types of effects are coming on leaps and bounds, and the fact these still veer into a kind of uncanny valley really help this with the short film's surreal and quietly sinister vibe.
The first half takes place in a park, following the excitable Daphne as she talks to the camera. The dialogue was pretty forgettable and had an odd cadence to it, but that fed into the vaguely unsettling feel of the world, that while on the surface everything seemed normal, there was just something a little off about everything that was going on, and how characters interact with each other.
The horror begins at around the two minute mark, without going into too much detail, it came out of nowhere, and was very bloody, violent, and surprising, all in equal measure. I did enjoy how it transitioned from normal to crazy in the blink of an eye. The digital effects lead to some moments you don't typically get to see in such detail. My biggest complaint with this as a whole was how wafer thin the story was, it was all designed as a lead up to a surprising moment, but didn't really tell much of a tale, ending on shock rather than something that made you think. Caulkdraggin aims to make a feature length film of Daphne using these digital effects, with this specifically referred to as a proof of concept. His almost fourth wall breaking appearance at the end to do his trademark "Witness Me!" catchphrase was certainly fun, he was an undeniable presence on screen even if the 'Caulkdraggin' name itself is a bit hard to take seriously due to the way it is pronounced.
As a micro film, I did appreciate that this didn't end on a lame jump scare, something that short horror films are usually all too keen to finish with. While I was yearning for more of a story, this really did go to an unexpected place. Caulkdraggin wrote, directed, edited and produced Daphne, and it is an undeniably impressive feat; an unsettling facsimile of reality. It has piqued my interest in how a feature length film in this style would be like to watch. Could this type of digital effect heavy work be the vanguard for a new sub-genre of horror? Daphne is due to head to the film festival circuit in the near future, be sure to check it out for yourself if you get the chance.
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