Short Horror Film Review: Her Last Photo
PLOT SUMMARY: A woman who is alone at home keeps having her photo taken by an intruder in her home.
YouTube has plenty of short horror movies and several channels that you can follow. It is truly a treasure trove for Horror Movie fans because instead of waiting months for a good movie to come out, they can instead watch a scary movie anytime during the day, and on repeat if they want.
The best thing about short films? No time is wasted with character backstories and anything else. If the writing is good, a scene is enough to show a character's motivations and reaction towards a situation.
Delivering an effective scare can be quote a challenge. In less than ten minutes, a short has to set up the scare and then wrap it up nicely for a climax. Unless there's going to be a sequel then of course it is okay to end it on a cliffhanger and a rather abrupt one too.
But once in a while, even a horror fan like myself who is open to just about any scary story, must admit that not all horror shorts are that good.
Especially in the case of an intruder entering the character's home, as a viewer, don't we somehow manage to put ourselves in their place and then think: Nope, that's not what I would do. I wouldn't stay indoors if I was sure that there was someone inside the house.
Then again, if the character has nowhere to go or find themselves locked, then it makes sense that they would stay in the place they are being threatened.
Really, all this short film had to do was to show that the character was locked inside and that is why she couldn't leave. Then it would have made sense.
HER LAST PHOTO Plot with Spoilers
The movie begins with a woman washing dishes when her ring slips off and falls into the trash disposal. She puts her hand in and of course we expect the trash disposal to come on.
But fortunately there's no gore and the woman hears a doorbell. She calls out "Hello" from afar. Then she looks through the peephole when she doesn't get a reply. Do people do that? Call out rather than check the peephole and then open the door?
She opens it, but there's no one outside. No rowdy kids which usually play the doorbell prank. She's about to close the door when she notices a photo on the carpet.
It is of her sitting on her bedroom floor, probably meditating. She looks at it, then at her rug, shrugs and tosses the photo in the bin. And then she doesn't go back into the kitchen to retrieve her ring. Gasp! That's the real horror of this movie. A woman let's go off a diamond ring.
Or maybe it was a knockoff? Even if it was, she liked it well enough to wear it at home.
Anyway, she doesn't go after the ring but does change and get on her phone to message her friend. After chatting about nothing, there's a flash and footsteps are heard.
The unnamed woman runs out of the room but again there's no one except for a photo of her laying on her bed.
The woman is now frightened. She gets a knife from the kitchen and then sits down and waits to be attacked.
She doesn't think about leaving her apartment or complaining to the security of the building. Even if she didn't want to call the police, she could have informed someone in the building.
And then...because she's so tired from washing dishes and dropping her ring and then not retrieving it, she gets exhausted and falls asleep.
When she wakes up, she sees a woman crawling with wet hair and darkened skin. She crawls up to her and grins, as if silently asking our clueless protagonist to say "cheese".
She gasps instead and her photo is taken. Her photo shows her with a bluish face and white eyes. That is her last photo.
The movie had a few plot holes but the idea isn't too bad. The protagonist didn't seem under threat and could have easily left her apartment. But she doesn't. And what about the ring???
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