Name: Don't Look Away
Genre: Short, Horror
Released: 2017-04-25
Duration: 8 min
Rating: 5.2
Cast: Sabrina Twyla, Danny Roy, Jim Marshall

When you watch short films, particularly horror short films, I do think it's important to acknowledge that you're not comparing against commercial releases, you're more likely watching friends and family, making something with almost no budget, so you need to be looking for moments in the story, or the performances, that could be built on. With that in mind, "Don't Look Now" is a middling effort from writer, director Christopher Cox.

Whilst arguing with her brother about whether to mow the lawn or not, Savannah (Sabrina Twyla) looks out of the window and sees a man, in a dishevelled suit, with a burlap sack chained to his head. On the phone with her father (Jim Marshall), she tells him what she can see and he explains that he's on his way over immediately, but that she needs to be looking at the figure at all times. Her brother Jim (Danny Roy) comes in, and he can see the creature too. With him watching, Savannah goes to lock all the doors, but when she returns the creature has gone.

So, there's a little bit of Doctor Who's Weeping Angels in this story, with a villain that can't move whilst being looked at, he also resembles Scarecrow in Nolan's Batman films. It's not particularly terrifying, but it's unsettling, particularly when it stands perfectly still. It's a fairly straightforward short though, with one reasonable jump scare and a neat way of half resolving the story.

The acting is not great, from any of the three actors that don't spend the whole 8 minutes with a bag on their head and that hurts the piece because they don't 'sell' what's going on particularly well.

There's enough in this that I'm going to try Cox's latest short and see what that's like, but I don't think that you particularly need to hunt this one down.

The horror genre features stories that aim to elicit fear, suspense, and a sense of dread in its audience. Horror stories often explore themes related to the unknown, the supernatural, and the macabre, and they frequently evoke strong emotional reactions such as anxiety, terror, and unease.

The short form refers to creative works characterized by their brevity and concise storytelling. Unlike full-length feature films, short films have a running time of less than 45 minutes, while TV shorts have a running time of less than 22 minutes.

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When Savannah, a teenage girl in her suburban home, catches a mysterious figure staring at her from outside, she calls her father for help. But all he can tell her is: "Don't Look Away!"

Charlie McCarthy in Don't Look Away (2017)

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Don't Look Away

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