SBIFF 2023 Review – Sinéad O’Loughlin’s Short Thriller ‘Lamb’ Offers More than Just Scares with its Societal Message

World premiering at last year’s Tribeca Festival — and just finishing its run at this year’s Santa Barbara International Film Festival (SBIFF) — Director Sinéad O’Loughlin’s “Lamb” is an eerie short worth your attention. The film, at under 16 minutes, is one of the most tense films I’ve seen in a while. Here, O’Loughlin has created a wholly suspenseful film, one so close to reality it defies genre labelling. It its short run-time, O’Loughlin and her two principal actors are making giant statements about abuse and entitlement, all while making a tiny kitchen feel like a time bomb waiting to explode. 

“Lamb’s” chief character, Sarah (Aoife Duffin), is likable. She’s making toast for her infant daughter, Lucy (played by Evie and Faye O’Sullivan), and the two have nice scenes. She burns the toast, and opens the front door to wave out the smoke and silence the smoke alarm. Leaving the door ajar, she turns around and a man (Éanna Hardwicke) appears in her door, clearly unwanted. He’s credited as ‘Paul,’ but it doesn’t matter. He’s here to stay, uninvited. He wants toast, simply because he sees a piece of toast pop up. He has that same type of careless recklessness Dane Cook carried in the excellent “Mr. Brooks,” except this time he’s not a fool playing with fire — he is fire. 

Palpable Tension You Can Feel

Paul sits, and though he doesn’t state it, we know he has no intention to leave. We also know that Sarah has no means to make him leave. Yes, with “Lamb,” O’Loughlin (who also wrote the film), is saying big things about power. It’s hard to watch the film without immediately getting it. Hardwicke is so good at what he does it’s scary (literally), and both O’Loughlin and Cinematographer Dan Keane highlight the moments well. We see this best when Sarah’s hands shake while making tea or cutting toast. But it’s also in the way her eyes dart furtively to her daughter Lucy. She’s sitting across from her at the table and much too close to this horrifying stranger. Duffin makes us believe the part. I can’t imagine viewers with any morals whatsoever not wishing for some cosmic hand to rip Paul from his seat and fling him somewhere into Outer Space. 

“Lamb” is so effective because O’Loughlin knows how to direct a scene, and the film is nothing if not an homage to Alfred Hitchcock’s ‘bomb theory’ and Dan Trachtenberg’s “10 Cloverfield Lane.” The tension is so great it’s impossible to bear at times. It’s even more impossible to bear because this situation is so real. Films like “The Strangers” or like home invasion thrillers — though plausible (I guess?) — lack the reality of the unwanted stranger motif this film explores. Many women may be familiar with the forced, unwanted attention present here. Men, who have likely not dealt with the receiving end of this, may not be as familiar. And that — understanding — is where this film shines. 

Approachable Commentary on Power and Abuse

There are many clues in “Lamb” to understand this, the standout underscored in this film’s review by Rebecca Cherry at Film Carnage. She explores Paul’s comment “I’m not going to rape you” and how audacious it is that anyone would think that is a non-threatening statement. And I feel that is where this film shines — in its invitation to empathy and understanding. A stranger sitting uninvited at our house, with no way to make him leave, is something we can understand. But do we understand less-obvious harassment? In Maria Schrader’s “She Said,” Carey Mulligan’s characters slams her hand on the table to drive a man away who is hitting on her during her work lunch after several attempts on her part to kindly ask him to leave. There’s an entitlement that runs through these men (the world’s Pauls). They are not only unaware of their own harassing nature, but are so entitled as to become venomous when women point it out. 

Are these all the things Sinéad O’Loughlin is trying to point out here? That’s up to the beholder. You can view “Lamb” in two ways: either as a very effective thriller or social commentary. Or maybe you can view it as both. O’Loughlin is great at building tension, and “Lamb” is so effective because this really could happen. Duffin and Hardwicke are great, and the film has its moments that really make you think and feel its fear. Paul’s behavior is so preposterous, you’ll shake your head. But in that lies, I feel, the real point of this short. We would never think Paul’s behavior is okay in this outlandish situation, so why do we, as society, tolerate it in less-obvious examples? And while “Lamb’s” ending is too open-ended for my taste (I would have liked more resolution), the questions it asks — and its top-notch tension — make it a good film. I can’t wait to see what O’Loughlin does in the future. With her skills, I’d love to see a feature film down the line. 

“Lamb” screened as part of the Santa Barbara International Film Festival on February 13th in the ‘Narrative Shorts 5’ category. The film will play at the Dublin International Film Festival on Feb. 25th, the Manchester Film Festival on March 17th, and Crystal Place International Film Festival in London on March 22nd. You can follow the film on Instagram or Twitter at @lambshortfilm.