Worm and Negativity: A Short Film Review

Director/writer: Richard Powell.

Fatal Pictures has created two horror shorts, Consumption and Worm, with the latter making an appearance at the Wildsound Film Festival May 29th. Worm is a dramatic thriller of about fifteen minutes that follows English teacher Geoffrey Dodd (Robert Nolan) through an average working day. Except this character's day is less than average as he suffers from inner conflict, negativity, and passive aggressive behaviour each of which is delivered through a limited omniscient narrative.

The title Worm from the poster art seems to signify a person rotting from the inside out, but the title could also be an adjective describing the central character, Dodd. Dodd silently internalizes his anger instead of expressing his feelings to students or co-workers to a detriment to both himself and those around him. Simply, he does not stand up for himself. The resolution of the film does not offer much hope for this character only another dreary working day.

The use of a limited insightful narrative makes the film unique as this device is rarely used. However, one negative of this style includes reducing other characters to flat personalities only and Dodd is such a vile character that viewers might be praying for a protagonist for intervention.

That aside, Worm is an interesting social commentary on one man's mundane life who only finds enjoyment through indirect conflict e.g. planting a tack on a chair for another chair to impact on, stewing on romantic feelings for a young student and so on. Dodd is actually a good example of someone who could use a friend, an intervention, or anything that would ease his pain. But maybe this is for the sequel or a longer version. Either way watch Worm at Wildsound in Toronto next Saturday for the dramatic effect. Details on the film are below.

Writing/plot/story: 7 (could use some positivity here to lighten the film's mood).
Characters/characterizations: 7.5 (Dodd is interesting as his exterior is very different from his interior - cognitive dissonance).
Social message/impact: 6 (could use a little more wider message here):

Overall: 6.75 out of 10.

Worm at Fatal Pictures here:

Worm at FP

On Facebook:

Worm on FB

On Imdb:

Worm on IMDB

At Wildsound:

Worm at Wildsound (Facebook)

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Posted in: 2010,drama,film festival,review,short,short film