WATCH THE TRAILER HERE
First, the Recap:
Confined. Imprisoned. Cornered. To be in a position of utter helplessness, unable to escape, realizing that whatever solace you might have sought is a bygone memory. Now knowing that there is no evident freedom to be had, it becomes a journey of attempting to either cope with said reality or fight through the fear to seek one last glimmer of hope that emancipation could, possibly, exist. However, what happens when it’s all a matter of perspective paired with jarring truths more ominous than imagined. Macy (Elyse Price) finds herself bursting awake in a bathtub after almost drowning only to ascertain that the shadowy bathroom she’s in offers no exit, even as dark, menacing entities and visions plague her, driving her to the brink—and an even more frightening revelation about her state of being.
Next, my Mind:
With a perfect sense of timing given the current month we’re in during what has become the most surreal year in recent memory thanks to a real life monster known as COVID-19, this 10-minute indie short film from writer/director/producer/cinematographer/editor Usher Morgan certainly packs a wholly eerie, absolutely harrowing punch in its abbreviated runtime. Exercising its horror-film genre muscles to maximum effect, and wasting no time in showcasing the meaning of desperate, all-consuming fear while likewise playing upon the understandably disturbing idea of being thoroughly ensnared without any clear path of evasion to a virtually claustrophobic level, the film frenetically illustrates one woman’s all-encompassing nightmare that then leads to a larger unmasking which shakes both her and others involved to the core.
The cleverness of the film’s execution is found in not just the foundational premise and play upon the entire concept of haunted houses and their jaded pasts, but rather how the narrative so beautifully narrows down the focus as it does to paint a grander picture of the uniquely written perspective being experienced by not only the lead character, but a host of others who enter in during the film’s third act, illuminating the reality shattering disclosure that really offers a superb twist to events and allows this effort to stand out, which is not always an easy feat to accomplish in the realms of this particular style of film. The additional magic of it all is truly the spectacular special effects involved in depicting the horrific forces that threaten and/or directly torment the narrative’s protagonist, presented with the kind of flat out intense, sinister, and chill-inducing visual delivery this critic finds the most blatantly potent and constructive for this platform’s methodology.
Again, it’s the creative beauty in how the film chooses to address all the ideas of perceptions and how actuality-altering they can become (ie: “The Others”, say) that make it a winner through and through. If anything, I wouldn’t necessarily mind seeing a feature-length project that carries this precise presentation so as to have the opportunity to flesh some things out more, but, it’s also the intelligence of Morgan’s technique and implementation here that still lets the film carry itself with poise and impact in only 10 minutes time. Price profoundly excels here in her role as Macy, a woman suddenly thrust into the worst possible encounter with not only fear, but the resulting recognition that there is no way to escape it. Relentlessly bombarded with ever-increasing moments of unearthly terror, her panic soon reaches total hysteria, even when thinking she’s actually found release.
With this only leading to an even darker and more unnerving reality, it seems Macy’s existence within the prison she finds herself residing in isn’t what it appears and may impose a much longer “sentence” than she’s ready to face. It’s an unflinchingly raw performance Price provides here, reverberating with the absolute frenzied distress her character is experiencing, and doing so with a believability that equally impacts the viewer and makes one wonder how she managed to emote with such raw ferocity and be emotionally intact afterwards. There’s usually potential for overacting in depicting a state of alarm, but Price nails it to a “T” and instills the appropriate amount of tangible plausibility and then some. One primary supporting role arrives from Julie Reifers as Betty, whose role I need to keep hidden to preserve what I felt was one of the magnificent twists in the tale.
The additional supporting turns are delivered by Joel Bernard, Nicole Michele Guilbault, Rylee Doiron, Ita Korenzecher, Sarah Megan Maltz, Katie Vincent, and Maury Wiederaenders as the undeniably minacious and visually stunning entities that torment Macy, as well as Mary Ann Siwek, Mike Mazzilli, and Gary Comorau who are also in a sequence playing characters I don’t wish to divulge to again preserve the integrity of the story. Therefore, in total, “Trapped Inside” is a formidably striking example of indie horror that once more demonstrates buckets of blood are not at all required to send that purposeful chill down the spine, raise the hairs on your neck, and drive home its well-crafted journey into overt unease with a cleverly orchestrated viewpoint, which this critic feels is the most compelling form for horror you can hope for.
As always, this is all for your consideration and comment. Until next time, thank you for reading!
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