Red Balloon

Who the hell runs out of a house and calls the cops because the girl they're babysitting has a doll her mom doesn't know about? The main character is guilty of extreme overreaction and it's honestly the only way the director establishes tension throughout the short. The doll/crazy guy in mask idea has been beat into the ground over the years and comes off as nothing more than cheesy nowadays.

So you may be wondering why this film even got a 6/10 from me. Well for starters the cinematography was A+. Whoever was behind the camera shouldn't be working on small films like this, they deserve the big-time. The camera work was better than many high-budget, full-length horror flicks nowadays and it's what saved Red Balloon from being completely dull. The fact that the film was so easy on the eyes excuses most of it's other shortcomings, though let it be known the idea, story, execution and most executive creative decisions were poorly done.

Julie, a young babysitter, finds herself constantly disturbed by the young girl she is babysitting one night. Julie assumes the girl is just having nightmares, but little does she know – the nightmare is in the home.

I love it when a horror films needs little time to give me a few good chills, and Red Balloon did just that for me. The idea of a babysitter facing any type of horror is not an original idea, but when you can take an unoriginal idea and still keep the viewer engaged then you have a winner. Our story is constantly moving with little time wasted and nothing but proper development taking place, which thankfully did not take very long for things to really get going. The horror provided was excellent, and came via a sweet twist very reminiscent of the incredible clown scene from Amusement. It was not an original idea, but it was one that is rarely used despite being creepy as hell and guarantee to deliver goose bumps as it did for me. The film does end rather abruptly, especially when all you want is more of the awesome antics going on, but hey – this is a short film.

Writers/directors Damien Mace and Alexis Wajsbrot, SFX maestros by trade, did a fantastic job delivering this film to us. The atmosphere is perfect, the sets are great, we get good performances from all (two) involved, and they execute the horror to perfection, resulting in some darn good chills that I did not expect to see in a short film.

Overall, Red Balloon is a great horror short that provides an effective story that results in great horror thanks to awesome direction. At only 13 minutes total the film will not provide as much horror as a full length effort, but the amount of horror you get in such a short package makes for a highly recommended watch if you can find it.