Very reminiscent to the likes of 'Mama' and 'The Sixth Sense', a young mother tucks her daughter into bed where she soon starts hearing her mum's voice in the middle of night. The question is, is it really her lullaby-butchering mother or a ghostly imposter? Writer and director Sears is able to maintain a level of suspense that is often absent within short films. For its eight minute runtime, approximately half of that will have the innocent daughter roaming around the house in the dark, listening out for the familiar voice that commands her to "come downstairs". And I shan't lie, it did make me jump. Wasn't expecting it, so therefore I applaud Sears for producing an unpredictable jump scare that put me on edge. With a short film, time cannot be wasted. Unfortunately the other remaining four minutes consists of sweet endearing mummy slaying a rendition of "Hush Little Baby" (truly making it her own), telling her child to "wait, the voice will go soon" and gripping scissors very tightly and violently (which we all know is a health and safety hazard...). Honestly Meddeman's acting is something else, I'm talking 'The Room' quality. When the child actor is better, something is clearly wrong. Sears then attempts to experiment with his camerawork by using several Dutch angles, consistently shifting camera focus and over-utilising shakiness. It comes across as amateurish, which could've been omitted if Sears kept it simple. Oh, and the ending felt cheap. Really cheap. However for a debut short, it's effective. Replace the most useless mother in the world and strip back the amateur filming techniques, and Sears would've had a decent outing into the horror genre. Check it out nonetheless.
