Short Film: Goodnight, Halloween (2020) Review

Synopsis

It’s 1986 in Detroit, Michigan. The news explains that a bunch of creatures has been killed in Detroit. This was the “last” significant nest of creatures. We get small hints that things aren’t quite normal: the flag has little crosses instead of stars and all the words are spelled with a “K” instead of the letter “C.”

The monsters do Skype calls to talk to each other (in 1986?). The warty-woman monster tells the plant-man that she thinks the others are all dead. The vampire joins the call, and the plant man blames him for being a leak. They argue about who is the traitor.

Daniel calls and explains that he’s on the run. Plant-man explains that Daniel is the only one who got out of the “safe house.” Planty is planning to upload the evidence telling the truth about KRONA, the group that hunts the monsters. Someone gets Daniel before the call is completed.

Will the monsters survive?

Commentary

I’m not sure why this is set in 1986, since they all seem to be using very modern computers for communications; there’s really no reason not to set it in the present day except possibly to eliminate the use of cell phones. From the video’s description, there are intended parallels between this story and the world of 2020 with Corona and right-wing agendas, but that’s pretty incidental.

The wart-woman gives a good performance, but the others are hindered by their masks. Still, it’s written well and looks good. The world is very interesting, and it’d be nice to see more of it in the future. This story, or segment of a story, is pretty brief, although it’s clear what’s going on from the clues we’re given. There is a small story here, but the world suggests a lot more. I liked it a lot!