SXSW Midnight Shorts Competition Highlights Day 4: ‘Don’t Peek,’ ‘A Tale Best Forgotten,’ ‘Joanne is Dead’

We’ve reached the end of my coverage of the 13-film slate in this year’s ‘Midnight Shorts Competition’ at SXSW. My coverage of the shorts with comedy infused (“Flex,” “Flick” and “Puss”) can be found here. My coverage of the other four shorts that also have comedy infused into the horror (“A Puff Before Dying,” “Reklaw,” “Run That Shit!” and “Stuffed”) can be found here. As well, my coverage of the three shorts I found had the biggest focus on atmosphere (“The Moogai,” “Significant Other” and “The Things That Ate The Birds”) can be found here.

This has been a joy covering some great genre short films that all were strong in their own ways. For the final three, there is really no common theme between these ones as one could have fit into the comedy categories, one could have fit into atmospheric and then the other is really its own beast. Here are my reviews of “Don’t Peek,” “A Tale Best Forgotten,” and “Joanne is Dead.” Thanks for reading this coverage.

‘Don’t Peek’

In writer/director Julian Terry’s “Don’t Peek,” a woman (Katie Cetta) lays on a bed playing a video game on her Nintendo Switch. She soon that learns whatever she does in the game also happens in her room. At first, she smiles learning this new trick. That is until in the game she spots a creepy shadow in her closet. She no longer wants to play; but the creature wants out.

Easily one of the creepier and most concentrated pieces of horror in this year’s ‘Midnight Shorts Competition,’ this film is easily comparable to a 2020 horror film “Come Play” where a monster called Larry wants to come out of electronics in general. That concept is nothing new; but “Don’t Peek” surely makes it sinister and playful in the monster’s sense of humour.

Truthfully, I think this is just this character’s punishment for deciding to play video games on a Nintendo Switch. I kid, but the way that her excitement turns to fear is so interesting to watch as she plays the video game. One thing that’s impressive is that the game seems specifically designed for the film. It looks playable at least for the one level as the design of the room of the game matches our main character’s room to some degree.

I love films like these where horror figures have their own environment and leak out into the real world (the 2005 film “Stay Alive” is honestly a guilty pleasure of mine, a game where Frankie Muniz and friends have to survive against Elizabeth Bathory and if they die in the game, they die for real). In this short, the way that’s portrayed and how we see this creature communicate with our world is truly creative in terms of horror. The sound design is one of the best components of this and the creature design impresses, too.

What’s more impressive is that after the credits of this six-minute short rolled, I realized that there was no dialogue here. Just a sound of video games, creepy sound effects and a lot of horror. I always find no dialogue impressive, and the game itself is an especially good storytelling device as the monster gets his cheeky jokes across through the game asking to be let out of his world and telling us that he’s a timid ole monster.

There’s a lot to this world that I’d love to learn more about. I like that this is made by a company called Nightlight Motion Pictures as this is exactly the type of horror that makes me stare at my closet in the middle of the night to check if something is moving. Eventually, I might turn on a light and sleep with it on. I love that kind-of creepiness and this is definitely one of my favourites from this slate of short films.

‘A Tale Best Forgotten’

Truly a short you can’t say a lot about in terms in story, as the focus here is the filmmaking techniques. The film is largely based on a poem by Helen Adam that starts as, “In a house by a river that lamented as it ran, lived a father, and his daughter, and the dog-headed man.”

The short film “A Tale Best Forgotten” is Writer/Director Tomas Stark’s interpretation of the story depicted in the poem. Utilizing no dialogue besides the poem, the short is hard to forget because it’s such a dark poem and adding some interest to this is that the poem is sung by its author Helen Adam.

While the music is lovely here, I didn’t really get the story at all for this one. The story doesn’t follow a traditional structure and while that’s fine, I just didn’t follow it very well. Still, I can respect the rendition and the technical aspects of it, especially.

It looks gorgeous in its lack of colour and brooding. The cinematography is by Ashley Briggs and that’s a highlight in terms of the filmmaking techniques here, as each scene seems to be separated by the camera seemingly going in a 360 degrees motion showing the action, as it shows the action and then shows the action reflected by the water as the water bends and wobbles. It’s visually neat; but anyone who gets easily motion sick could get a bit nauseous, so beware. The music is so lovely here but I did not get the story at all, really.

‘Joanne is Dead’

On an average day at a nursing home, Ms. Myrtle (Jenny O’Hara) is telling high tales again and no one will believe her. In Brian Sacca’s script (he also directs), he explores the idea of what if one of these little old ladies affected by dementia who tell these crazy high tales was actually telling the truth?

To spoil what Myrtle is talking about would be to spoil the fun of it, but I’ll just say that much of it has to do with the title of the short—which could really mean anything. It’s fun learning about her character and some of the banter between the nurses at the home, between Barry Rothbart and Jade Catta-Preta (I’m not sure of their character names) is really funny and I wasn’t expecting that comedy here.

We get a lot of layers here in general in a short that is best saying as little as possible, because it’s hard to expect what’s coming at you with this one. I’ll just say vaguely that there’s one reference to an iconic horror film that I definitely did not expect to see utilized here.