The Reckoning

The Reckoning

***1/2

Reviewed by: Angus Wolfe Murray

Horror shorts are difficult to pull off. There isn't time to allow fear to poison disbelief.

Chris Barfoot, Robert Clother and Mark Hill have done a chilling job in 12 minutes. They even leave space for a surprise ending.

After a row in a restaurant, David is run over in the street, saving Rachel's life. She suffers guilt withdrawals for months, finally resorting to a medium, who, during a seance, makes contact and David's voice echoes through her mouth.

The experience opens a portal to another place where a vampiric power lurks in the dusty dark. There is nothing relative to hell, or death, about the razor-toothed being in the flowing leather coat. Rachel sleeps fitfully, unaware of the creature's hunger, until she hears a voice announcing, "Time to close the circle", and someone turns the handle of her bedroom door.

The images are familiar and the paranormal incomprehension is shorthand for a sixth sensibility where the language of evil is coded into a pulse rate. Don't expect to know; expect to feel... afraid.

showing April 3. 21:40, Sky Movies Max

Reviewed on: 29 Mar 2003
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An unexpected death leads to the reawakening of a vampiric power

Director: Chris Barfoot, Robert Clother

Writer: Chris Barfoot, Robert Clother, Mark Hill

Starring: Mark Hill, Susie Lumley

Year: 2002

Runtime: 12 minutes

Country: UK

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