Shane Atkinson's PENNY DREADFUL is a generally well crafted short comedy that somehow won the audience prize at the Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival in France in 2013. The film combines tropes of the kidnapping gone wrong with the conventions of the monster child film, reminding me of the 2007 supernatural thriller WHISPER directed by Stewart Handler, about a soul-eating demon child kidnapped by a gang of outlaws desperate for his ransom. One might also notice that Atkinson's film contains overtones of HOME ALONE.
PENNY DREADFUL is competently shot. It's framing is generally pleasing even if it is a little by the numbers while the performances from most of the cast are adequate. The one understandable exception is child actor Oona Lawrence, who puts in an excellent performance mastering a variety of facial expressions from broodingly unhinged to sweet-as-pie but, as with many child actors, struggles to make her dialogue not sound like she is reciting lines from a screenplay.
It is in fact the screenplay that is the weakest link in this film. Where the story overall is strong, the dialogue is clunky and becomes overly repetitive (after the first two times David H. Stevens asks "What is wrong with you?" the line loses its intended humour). Stevens reminds me a little of Steve Zahn and carries the film on his slender shoulders, but has trouble selling his novice kidnapper mainly because the character is so insufferably stupid.
The film relies upon repetition of dialogue and situations for most its humour but even at 17 minutes, the repetition quickly becomes a bit too much.
