Film Review: The Curse of Chains (short film) (2018)

SYNOPSIS:

A woman fatefully decides not to forward a chain message.

REVIEW

The Curse of Chains is a perfect campy horror short. We know exactly what’s going to happen as soon as we read the message on her phone – we know she’s going to dismiss the chain message as nonsense (just like all of us would) and we know she’s going to get haunted or possessed by an evil chain-mail demon. It’s classic internet era folk-lore. And you know what? I loved it. The acting was just the right level of sincere but also humorous in the way that it felt very aware of itself.

Equally, the creature is spooky enough to make me wary about not forwarding chain messages but also very familiar; it has a The Grudge/Ringu feel to it that. The fact that we were able to hear the sound of chains shortly after she decided not to send the message on was a nice touch and followed perfectly in the cheesy vein of the short, and I particularly enjoyed the ending which seemed to imply that nobody ever actually sends these messages on, at least, not in the way you think!