WATCH THE TRAILER HERE
First, the Recap:
I wish, I wish, I wish. It is both the proclamation of hope-filled dreams and the harbinger of regrets of what could have been. Whichever side of this equation we might find ourselves bearing, it isn’t easy. One at least holds the possibility of joy while the other harbors notions of anger, resentment, and the need for freeing oneself from being under its weight. But, what happens when it is the latter–and said desire comes true? Jade (Kay McAllister) has come home, back to living with her parents Isobel (Victoria Liddelle) and Richard (Paul McCole), who are less than happy with their daughter’s decision making not matching their ideas of her future and what it should be. However, in a moment of unsettled yearning, Jade may get far more than she bargained for.
Next, my Mind:
Beautifully delivering overall thematic shades reminiscent of M. Night Shyamalan’s “The Visit” and combining it with some good old fashioned, abundantly creepy menace and smartly executed, appropriately disconcerting imagery, this 10-minute horror short from writer director Aimie Willemse and producer Lisa Herbers, along with executive producers Ulrike Bethke and Christof Herbers, very much rises to the level of total entertainment and truly well-done horror for this critic, as it relies wonderfully less on overt gore, instead creating the atmosphere of eerie unease and fidget-in-your-seat reactions that works on your mind while eliciting the frights.
The deeper beauty of it is how understated so much of the effort is, not even requiring constantly blatant jumps or obvious “scares” but rather utilizing a mix of subtlety and more direct sequences to knit together its twisted and freaky tale of a young woman’s wish gone one hundred percent awry. There’s even a dark humor to it at specific points as well, which by no means lessens the seriousness of what’s intended, but enhances the whole experience while still managing to keep you on edge, on the hook, for its entire, albeit abbreviated, runtime, doing so effectively and with delicious results that allow your imagination to run amok. For me, this is the ultimate form of horror. I don’t need blood and guts. I need it to work psychologically. And here, that is accomplished in spades.
The perfect camerawork here very much plays a huge part in making us feel as such, for it almost playfully manipulates us as the viewer, settling on multiple, minor yet impactful hints during the unfolding events that give away just enough without betraying the whole thing, hence as mentioned above, causing one to feel the skin crawl yet need to know more. Even when you’ve gotten the grander gist of what’s been occurring to this poor girl thanks to the fateful choice she has made and now is paying the price for it, the story still provides a fantastic final twist in its finale that could, perhaps, engender a sense that there COULD be more to come from this particular tale.
The real message that I gain from this, outside of the horror and crazy situation depicted, speaks clearly about something we can all attest to from current or, in this critic’s case, younger days when it felt like everything we were aspiring towards wasn’t up to snuff in our parent’s eyes. Sure, they do love and support us, yet once we’ve made that path for ourselves that doesn’t seem to include what they see as success or stability, that’s when the disagreements, arguments, and the subsequent “wishes” that they were gone come out. Trying to find the equilibrium between all parties is the harder key, and should be aimed for. Here, it’s played up to a purposeful extreme for sake of a great narrative, but the underlying principal still remains–just work it out, folks, or face the music.
McAllister is an exercise in intentionally downplayed and gratefully not overstated wonder through her role as Jade, a young woman who’s facing the indignity of having to move back in with her parents after we assume was a good go at university but not initially such a great run in yet finding a stable job that pays the bills to be on her own. As the familial tension mounts and her parent’s attitudes start pushing her to a breaking point, Jade makes a wish whose ramifications are at minimum shockingly strange and decidedly out of place when it comes to a sudden shift in their demeanor. Watching as Jade begins to discover a disturbing truth is both fun and filled with genuine slow-burn realization that works flawlessly, with McAllisters’ performance filled with sublime nuance that buoy the character and don’t let it sink into typical horror film cliché.
The duo of Liddelle and McCole is an equally compelling mix of understated excellence and timing with their roles as Jade’s parents Isobel and Richard. Coming across at first as the “archetypal” parents concerned but maybe a little overly so about their daughter’s life plans, the real magic happens when the abrupt interruption of normalcy occurs and they become–something else. The transformation is undeniably comical on the surface, as the change that happens makes them so plainly different than they were before, and the manner of their actions and words is almost hysterical to witness if we didn’t know as the viewer something has gone severely wrong in the household. Again, though, the behavioral change they go through is genius and plays magnificently into the greater story unfolding, a total credit to both actors for so deftly making the characters vividly different, but not so much as it becomes overacted and “fake”.
In total, “Doppelparents”, only 10 short minutes, is simply brilliant utilization of conjecture and hinted-at circumstances, with just enough revelation to follow events while still not actually knowing all the facts or getting a total explanation of exactly how things manifest the way they do, beyond what we see, of course. It feels like there could be more to it, and the film might just leave enough on the table for us to get more in the future. Either way, this is what great horror is made of.
As always, this is all for your consideration and comment. Until next time, thank you for reading!
