Box (2019)

A man frantically dumps a body after committing an accidental murder. Frightened, he rushes home only to find a large ominous wooden Box on his doorstep. [IMDb]

Continuing my recent foray into reviewing short films, the 2019 short horror-thriller Box came across my path. The film stars Jimmy Dempster as a man who seems to be having a very bad night and it is not clear (to him or to us) as to exactly why that is, as hints slowly unfold throughout the film, building up to it’s climactic finish. While I have seen this type of storyline before, I have to mention that I was kept engaged all the way through it. Looking at the plot and how it unfolds, the film appears a tad long at almost 30-minutes, yet the pace is fairly brisk and does not seem to contain much filler to get to that half hour mark. Taking on this type of idea is at the very least ambitious. Personally I would have preferred a more original approach as I am constantly on the lookout for stories which I have yet to witness in filmmaking in the past. That, however, does not necessarily apply for the majority of viewers, so it is really a matter of personal taste. There are a few technical issues with the way the film is put together, yet none harm the viewing experience too much. So lets break it down.

As the synopsis suggests, the film is a somewhat strange and cryptic one. Inexperienced viewers would likely feel somewhat lost until they get closer to the end of the film. This is all the more reason for me to avoid talking about the plot any more than I already have for fear of hinting and potentially giving away plot points and thus, spoiling. I’ll just say that the film does feel like a somewhat dark, Lynchian tale in its approach and is largely a story of regret, sin, punishment, and perhaps the possiblity of redemption, fulfilled or otherwise.

Director Lee Thongkham seems to have fairly firm control over the material. The production value is definitely above average, though I noticed some minor, perhaps negligible, sound issues in particular spots. The cinematography by Brandt Hackney is also of a fairly high level. The music, composed by Chris Haigh and David Fesliyan is quite grandiose, which at times overwhelms the film. However, as the film has almost no dialogue at all, it was perhaps designed that way to keep our attention and fill in the space created by the lack of words. I would have personally preferred the score to be a little more understated, but that, too, is more a choice relating to personal taste. The score Haigh and Fesliyan composed possesses an impressive and tense beauty to it.

While there are some supporting characters in the film, the burden of getting us from the starting to the finishing line falls, almost solely, on the broad shoulders of talented actor Jimmy Dempster (who also co-produced the film). Dempster has to carry a whole half-hour film with barely any dialogue from start to finish, seldom sharing the screen with any other characters. For those unaware, that is fairly high on the acting level of difficulty scale. Dempster succeeds here quite remarkably as even though I noticed some flaws in this film, I was still intrigued from start to finish and was not bored for a second. This is, as I pointed out earlier, in a film of which the storyline was quite familiar to me and therefore, somewhat predictable, yet it still managed to keep my interest and it never felt like I was wasting my time, an achievement that undoubtedly deserves mention. 

Thongkham, Hackney and Dempster deserve credit for that and should be applauded for creating quite an interesting short horror-thriller.

I would be quite curious to see what comes next from Thongkham and also Dempster‘s career, as it seems the potential is quite high for success. Demspter, in fact, has been busy taking part in MyIndie featured artist, Brett Mullen‘s production of highly-anticipated horror feature Killer Babes and the Frightening Film Fiasco, due to be completed before the end of the year.

In short, Box, while imperfect, is a great short that should keep most horror fans happy and perhaps even those who aren’t necessarily deciples of the genre. It is an interesting piece of cinema which deserves a wide audience. The film is currently showcased on the Kings of Horror YouTube channel (link at bottom of review, below), where it is slowly edging towards 60,000 views and has garnered some festival success already, which is much deserved.

A very well-acted and tightly produced short. 7.5/10.