Author: Joel Fisher

There’s something inherently creepy about somebody whispering in your ear, especially when you don’t know who’s whispering. The thought of somebody being up close to you and quietly whispering something in your ear can send a shiver down your spine and that’s why so many people feel freaked out by it, but some people find it has a calm and soothing effect if it’s done in the right environment.

Recently, the craze of ASMR (Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response) hit the internet and soon many streamers and YouTube channels picked up on its popularity and began to benefit from having hundreds, maybe even thousands of people listening to them creating that ASMR feeling that helps them forget about their problems and relax – this is where Tingle Monsters begins.

Dee (Alexandra Serio) is an ASMR streamer, she regularly goes online and talks in a calm, hushed tone that her viewers find pleasing, helping them to wash their stresses away. However, this is still the internet and whereas most people are happy to watch and love everything she does, there are still a few that like to disrupt the peace and mindfulness of Dee’s channel.

Told only through Dee’s webcam, all the viewer can see is what everybody else can see when they log on to a video streaming channel, one person with a microphone talks to their fans. Along with that there is the constant stream of dialogue alongside the stream where her fans, well-wishers and trolls like to make themselves heard.

The dialogue for this chat section is very realistic, just like anybody may encounter online, so the audience are fully immersed in the scenario, maybe even more so if they are wearing headphones while watching. Then one of the chatters says something bad, the rest of the chat turn against him and he gets banned for obvious reasons and this is where Tingle Monster’s story changes.

I can’t really go into too much detail of what happens next, and perhaps some people would have a good idea where this is going, but for the rest, the film manages to build tension and surprise its audience right up until the final moments. Considering the nature of the internet and how anybody can seemingly do or say anything with little consequences, the results of Tingle Monsters is also left up to the audience to decide the validity of what they just saw.

However, in such a short space of time those familiar with online streamers such as this will find a very familiar space with a story that’s tightly told and still manages to entertain.

Re-home: Final Girls Berlin Review. Re-Home sets its very short story in a not too distant future where the wall between Mexico and North America has been built and the cost of living is high, so much so that people are forced to be re-homed like pets.

Maria (Gigi Saul Guerrero) is moving into her new home, a place Laura (Kasey Lansdale) and her husband Matt (Morgan Peter Brown) call Future Horizons. Once there, Maria is greeted very warmly and made to feel at home, even having dinner ready for her when she and her baby arrive.

Obviously a little scared and cautious about her new home, the tension never eases in Maria’s new situation – especially when her baby is taken out of her hands as if it was all part of the service that Maria’s new housemates like to provide.

Then the tone very quickly changes and the fears of not only Maria, but that of the audience are confirmed to be far more intimidating, swift and final for Maria as Laura and Matt’s plans for her are put into action. However, its short format and predictable setting are over far too quickly leaving the audience with little to no surprises.

Anybody with a passing knowledge of horror in cinema, literature or television would know what was about to happen to Maria. From Lansdale’s eerily friendly demeanour, Brown’s patronising manner and even when the audience is told that the place Maria has found herself is called Future Horizons, the audience knows that there is something wrong with this place and Maria should get out as fast as she can.

Being so short, the film does get to the point rather quickly which means there is very little time for exposition which would be a blessing in most films. Unfortunately, there is very little to play on, leaving mostly everything up to the imaginations of the audience which suggests that the film doesn’t really achieve what it sets out to do.

Even the explanation about the Mexico/American border wall is very briefly touched on, coming across as a comment on what is is now rather than it being fully built in the not too distant future.

If Re-Home intended to show how a scene can be set up where something happens and little explanation is given then it does exactly what it intended.

However, if it was trying to make a comment on the current state of America and what may be just around the corner, then a little more explanation would have been needed to make the audience wish that they could see more.

Exam is a short film about a teenage girl living in Iran who faces a difficult decision when she is forced to make a delivery of cocaine. Part of the problem is that she still goes to school and has an art exam later that day, so as well as the pressures from school she is also being forced to doing illegal activities by her father and expected to deal with it all by herself.

As the story continues and she goes to school, tensions mount as her teachers are suspicious of her activities, however due to some quick thinking she is able to deal with the situation as if she has been dealing with this kind of thing her entire life.

The lead actress does a great job, showing fear and also showing that this may not be the first time she’s had to deal with a situation such as this. She manages to do so with the calmness of a person forced to deal with something that is well beyond her years and when it comes down to the wire, the scene plays out keeping the audience on edge as to whether she will have to face the consequences of her actions.

The situation may seem outlandish considering the extreme strictness of the school and the situation that the main character finds herself. However, writer/director Sonia Hadad takes her inspiration from some real and personal experiences and manages to blend them together creating an atmosphere of an impossible situation from all sides that still manages to feel real despite the supposedly unique situation.

Tackling a subject that feels so grounded and simultaneously so unique could be so easily overlooked as fantastical, but that is what makes Exam such an interesting story. Before viewing Hadad’s short film, most of audiences may never have heard of such a thing happening, let alone ever considered that this kind of thing may even be happening for real.

As long as there are filmmakers given a voice to tell their stories and being able to say things that other filmmakers would shy away from, then perhaps the world will be more aware of things even if they don’t affect them directly.