Film Review: Guest House (short film) (2019)

SYNOPSIS:

While on a weekend away in a guest house, a couple play a game that has supernatural consequences.

REVIEW:

More short films, kiddies! Today we have GUEST HOUSE, written by Aiden Gibson and directed by Dave Thorpe. This little slice of life is brought to us by the demented minds of ALTER FILMS, a company that distributes unique horror shorts that (and I quote from their website) “explore  the human condition through warped and uncanny perspectives”. I have reviewed and watched a lot of films from these guys and quite frankly…they aren’t kidding.

In this film, we meet Ged and Amy (Mark Lawrence, Sheila Moylette), a young couple on a vacation in the European countryside. Their relationship seems to be in a bit of trouble, and the fact that there is no television, or phone signal, or wifi isn’t helping matters. They have to (gasp in horror) TALK to each other.

So they try, playing a few board games and drinking some wine but its not going well. Then Amy suggests a new game called Mirror, Mirror. The objective is to hold a mirror and walk backwards through three rooms, and whoever manages it first is the winner.

Seems harmless enough. But as we all know by now, these sort of things don’t usually work out that way. And in this case, it goes really badly.

I enjoy many of the films from Alter. Some are better than others, some are scarier than others, and some are plain weird. This one is very grounded, resting firmly in a certain reality that makes sense. The production quality is quite good, and our actors are believeable.  I don’t want to spoil the film, so I can’t tell you very much more.

I will say that it was an interesting adventure. It’s runtime is less than ten minutes so even if you don’t believe me, you don’t have anything to lose by checking it out for yourself. But trust me…you’ll like it.