Friday 26 August 2016

HEIR - short film review.

Richard Powell’s unsettling short film “Heir”, which is currently playing at festivals, is a film I had featured on this site once before, albeit rather briefly, as it was screened at last years Mayhem Festival during their scary shorts section. But I was recently contacted by producer Zach Green, who asked if I’d like to give it a rewatch, so I dutifully obliged. 

Gordon (as played by Canadian TV actor Robert Nolan) is taking his young teenage son on a trip to meet an old friend of his, Denis (played by genre regular Bill Oberst Jr – Zombie World). But, as we have seen from their internet chat messages during the intro, we know that this is no regular father-son road trip. 

Meeting in a diner, where the son seems unawhere of the sinister undertones of the conversation, they soon end up back at the Denis’s place, where the young lad is subsequently drugged and bound up. 

But whilst their intentions are sinister, the film then takes a very bizarre sci-fi twist, as we discover that these men are “monsters” in a very literal sense and their intentions towards the boy are not exactly what we had imagined (think Brian Yuzna’s “Society”). 

Clocking in at around 11 mins, the director manages to cram in a lot of storytelling in that time and boasts strong performances from both Nolan and Oberst. However, the subject of child abuse and grooming still makes for very uncomfortable viewing, even when dressed up in a sci-fi setting. 

The film is doing the rounds on the festival circuit at the moment. If you get chance to see this, do so. 


You can find out more about this, and other films from the production team at http://www.fatalpictures.com

Checkout the film's Facebook page.

View the trailer on YouTube


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