The Neighbours

This short augurs well for the respective directors. With a very low budget of c. £900, they have managed to assemble a cast, plot and music score that retains interest throughout it's short life. It can be viewed through a number of prisms: face value, the realms of psychology, spirituality and historical film horror. It works from each perspective. There are nods to 60s/70s British horror movies, but also to Dante's Divine Comedy, which is one of it's firmer roots. There is an underlying what I would call friendly menace: something horrible is going to happen, but we'll have a bit of a laugh in the meantime. Tongue-is-very-much-in-cheek throughout and there is an end twist which has been seen in popular film before, but arrives somewhat unexpectedly here. My only gripe is the end credits did not contain images of the respective actors together with their names. There are some little gem acting performances in there and it would have been nice to know who exactly was who.