La boca del león

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.

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.