Kevin Matthews over at Flick Feast sent me a link to a short film called Monsters recently. I will openly admit that the month of September left me pretty lazy: I was having trouble concentrating and had a few issues finding my will to write. Luckily, I got my mojo back. I got a chance to watch Monsters, which, frankly, is pretty damn good. You need to watch this – this is something that is going to launch a few people here (namely, writers Michael Sherman and writer/director Steve Desmond).

This is how you do a twist ending. We all knew going in that there weren’t any monsters. We also had a gut feeling that this child was most likely kidnapped, and seemingly, that got confirmed. But then we hit that point where we get to the big twist, and it’s wrenching. The soldier just grabbing a child and proclaiming her to be a violation of bureaucratic policy? A bunch of kids lined up in a van? Neighbors staring around gawking and doing nothing while this kid is carted away by the police? So many themes here to unpack. It’s staggering. It’s picked up some buzz at various film festivals, most recently the Toronto International Film Festival. I can understand why. Watch out for these guys; they’re going places. A special thank-you to Kevin for clueing me into this one. Bravo.

And with that, happy Saturday.