Screamfest LA – Excision and Séance [Festivals]
Today we’re going to examine two more of the short films appearing this weekend at Screamfest LA in (of course) Los Angeles. The first, Excision, is a wonderfully gruesome mad scientist coming-of-age story set in American suburbia. The other, Séance, is a creepy story from the Czech Republic that tells of a young medium who is summoned to speak to the dead.
Excision
Excision
Richard Bates Jr. writes and directs Excision, a troubled teen story that has more angst in its 18 minutes than any television show on the CW network could pack into a season. Pauline (Tessa Ferrer) is the black sheep of a small family that devotes all its attention and resources to her sickly little sister, Grace (Carly Hobson). In the absence of love from her parents, Pauline has become fascinated with surgery. Blood haunts her dreams and she practices her art on dead animals in the neighborhood. It soon becomes apparent that she isn’t just studying for med school. She has more immediate plans that involve her family.
While Bates could have given us a shocking and gruesome gorefest, his film takes a different road that serves to make it stand out. While he is not above showing us the bloody detail (as when Pauline is licking blood off a dead bird), his film is really about the family dynamic in a home where one child is ill. Call this a horror movie, call it a cautionary tale. I call it a winner.
Séance
Séance
In Séance, writer and director Robin Kasparik opens the door to the unknown with a Gothic tale of horror. Klára Jandová plays Maria, a young village woman who has the unique gift of speaking to the dead. When Richard (Pavel Nový) asks her to visit the Baroness, Maria is frightened. The Baroness is a reclusive creature who never has visitors. But Maria soon discovers that she is not being summoned by the Baroness, but to speak to her.
Kasparik has created a short film that reminds me of a tale by Edgar Allen Poe, one filled with greed, hatred and betrayal. It has the benefit of being shot on location in a 16th century palace. And, supposedly, the crew hired an expert in magic and magical language so everything is authentic. The result is a film that is both beautiful to watch and pleasantly creepy. While it is not as frightening (or surprising) as some horror films, it is a wonderful, haunting tale.