La boca del león

Is this where telehealth services are taking us? A young girl trying to help someone in serious need, guided only by a psychiatrist over an internet connection? Okay, in this horror short film, the "patient" is actually a man possessed by a demonic force, and the doctor is a priest trying to guide the man's young daughter through an exorcism ritual.

Needless to say, this is not how it should be done-especially as we learn more about the ritual itself. And horror wouldn't be horror if something didn't go sideways.

Anyway, it's a very interesting concept. The camerawork is a bit Blair Witch Project-like, which I don't personally like too much, but here it makes perfect sense, as the whole idea is built around an internet video meeting.

The Voice of the Lion opens with a man making a phone to someone we soon learn is a priest. The caller is clearly distressed, tired and frightened – with pentagrams and candles all over the floor. Now on a FaceTime call with the priest, the man's arms begin to burn with symbols and the priest quickly turns to the man's young daughter to help with an over-the-phone exorcism.

This short film will feel reasonably familiar because essentially it is a found-footage horror movie that uses the first-person perspective and hand-held cinematography as one of the tools to draw the viewer in. In this case it is not so much footage as a live feed since the film was made using a mobile phone. The narrative device is good and although some of the plotting doesn't totally scan, it does grab you. The hand-held approach is perhaps a bit overdone and it would have been good to have a bit more stability to the camera view, but for key moments it does so. Make-up and atmosphere are well presented so the horror is visually evident but it does also feel tense, with a very good build throughout. The conclusion is sudden and satisfying and I particularly enjoyed the dark tone to the ending while a much more jovial song played.

It does feel a little derivative in some ways, but it is short and it does work for what it wants to do, which is really the key thing.

A man, victim of magic ritual. The call to a priest. The daughter. Images suggesting the dramatism of story. And the end. Well crafted short horror, using classic references of genre with great effect.