The best thing about Devi Snively’s short film DEATH IN CHARGE is that even from the short 15 minutes I saw, I think I could pick out another of her movies in a line-up, and that’s a good thing. Her style is definitely distinctive; she says she’s aiming for a comics feel, and she nails that. But it’s not horror. I’d love to see what she did with real horror, but this isn’t that film.
Basically, Sandy’s (Gillian Shure) never going to win Mother of the Year—first she almost sets the apartment on fire with her cigarette in the trashcan trick, then she leaves her kid (Kylie Chalfa) with a hooded, scythe-wielding babysitter. Seems Death (Marina Benedict) already killed off the real sitter, and even though she’s arrived to take Sandy off to some sort of grave, she winds up with kid duty and learns all about video games, macaroni and cheese, and the extremely short life cycle of Sea Monkees.
Death, in the form of Marina Benedict, rocks. She’s funny and creepy all at once, and could carry her version of the Grim Reaper into other or longer pieces. She has the perfect face for a movie full of comic book shots, and she pulls off lines that could easily be overdone. The other really enjoyable element, at least for me, is again, the definite nod to comic book style—everything feels authentically like it’s lifted from a page full of pictures and ink, and it’s all shot with an eye that has a firm grasp on what it wants. Where it doesn’t work is, unfortunately, the story. While funny in parts, it falls flat at the end, and all the way through I was hoping for more. Again, it felt like a comic, but more like one of those kind where, in the last frame, you’re treated to a little ironic pun that isn’t all that funny, but because it’s the last thing you read (or in this case, see), it’s what you remember. Also, to add some nitpick—I’m not one to stereotype toys into boy/girl labels, but Whitney didn’t really seem like an army tank kid, especially when that tank was just so conveniently placed. Blood and guts video game kid, I totally buy it. But the tank? No.
Overall, Snively’s short does what I suppose a short should do—shows promise. The first time I watched it, I was expecting horror, and when I didn’t get any, I was disappointed. Watching it again, knowing there were no scares, I enjoyed it more, and I realized I don’t think that was what she was going for, despite the film’s description as comedy/horror (and despite the FINAL DESTINATION-ish death tribute). There’s still this gnawing feeling, though, that there’s something missing, not because it’s short, but because it feels like she’s holding back. There’s a wicked streak there that pokes its head out and wiggles its eyebrow every once in a while, but before it ever gets a chance to really let loose, it gets shoved back down. Given full reign with a feature film budget, this woman could do something amazing, and there is a balance between dark humor and true fright that, in time, her style will fit perfectly—she just needs to find it.
– Amber Goddard
- Interview with J.R. Bookwalter - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Andrew J. Rausch - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Rick Popko and Dan West - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Director Stevan Mena (Malevolence) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Screenwriter Jeffery Reddick (Day of the Dead 2007) - January 22, 2015
- Teleconference interview with Mick Garris (Masters of Horror) - January 22, 2015
- A Day at the Morgue with Corri English (Unrest) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Writer/Director Nacho Cerda (The Abandoned, Aftermath) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Actress Thora Birch (Dark Corners, The Hole, American Beauty) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Actor Jason Behr, Plus Skinwalkers Press Coverage - January 22, 2015
