PopHorror Let's Get Scared
Horror shorts will never cease to amaze me. The amount of beauty and darkness that can be told in such a short period of time is truly brilliant. The Final Girls Berlin Film Festival 2018 has an amazing lineup of talented directors who have created unique, horrific, and well-crafted stories. It’s definitely one of the best festivals I’ve had the privilege of covering so far. On that note, my first short this time around is The Day my Mother Became A Monster (Le Jour où Maman est Devenue un Monstre).
This poster is absolutely stunning – I love it!
The short is directed and written by Joséphine Hopkins who also stars in the film, along with Gretel Delattre and Yvette Caldas.
Official Synopsis for The Day my Mother Became A Monster:
Candice, a 9-year-old girl, lives alone with her mother after the divorce of her parents. As the little girl’s birthday approaches, she starts to see her mother turn into a strange and hideous creature.
This horror short is just shy of 24 minutes and delivers a disturbingly chaotic story. It starts out sweet with a loving tone, but things quickly take a turn for the worse as Candice’s mother slowly turns into a monster. A frightening and emotional experience.
The performances were outstanding by all parties. Grétel Delattre delivers a heartbreaking performance that’s raw and frightening. She blew me away with her transformation. Meanwhile, Joséphine Bernetti was just as fantastic. She has more talent in her pinkie finger than most people have in their entire body. She has a bright future ahead of her and I can’t wait to see where her career leads.
The story fascinated me. I also looked at it from different perspectives. To me, it was a metaphor for what depression can do to you. It can make you lose yourself. Change you. Become a monster. After the woman’s husband leaves, I think she tried to hold it together but the pain and misery slowly ate at her until she became what she felt like… a monster.
I must also mention how awesome the special effects and makeup were. I loved the step by step monster transformation as well as the end result. It was creative and bizarre.
Final Thoughts:
Joséphine Hopkins has a great vision and way of telling beautifully dark stories. I’m glad I got the opportunity to watch her film and I will undoubtedly be checking out her other projects as well. The Day my Mother Became A Monster is a short that everyone should check out!
