Retch (Short)
**Seen prior to its Saturday screening at the 2020 Women in Horror Film Festival**
Four minutes is not a lot of time for a film. How you use that time matters in how successful a short can be. For horror, that means the tension has to start fast, and keep moving at a remarkable clip. Director Keir Siewart and his collaborators have the urgency to make it happen in this visceral short film.
The first thing we see is Sonia (Chloe Wigmore) convulsing, and her friend, Rebecca (Maria Teresa Creasey), frantically trying to find something to calm her down with. At first, they are in a house, but then we see them in an industrial warehouse. The change is going to happen regardless.
Storytelling at its purest, most cinematic form in “Retch.” Stewart is using images, sound and music to create suspense at what might be happening without giving it away before the film’s final moments; save for the sound and audio dialogue, this could be a silent short, and land the same way. It’s a tense experience, with a sharp, clever payoff.
