Short film: The Familiars (2020)

  • Director: Millicent Malcolm
  • Writers: Octavia Barron Martin, Octavia Barron Martin
  • Stars: Milly Alcock, Helen Stuart, Julia Savage
  • Run Time: 16 Minutes

Synopsis

A group of pilgrims cur down a witch they had hung. A girl cuts some of the witches’ hair off.

Meanwhile, in the present day, a couple of girls dress as witches for Halloween. Her bunny has gone missing. The mother tells the youngest about the hair, which contained all the witches’ powers. She still has that hair. The mother takes the youngest girls’ hair from the hairbrush before they go to sleep.

The older girl wakes up and goes down the hallway to find an old dead woman, her grandmother, in their mother’s bed. She gets in the closet and takes out the magic hair. Her mother seems relieved that she took it. The missing bunny turns up cooked in a pan for grandma.

Mother does want the the hair, and she knocks the older child out in anger. It seems whoever has the hair holds all the power.

Commentary

I’m not entirely sure what the mother was doing to the dead grandmother, or why that was a problem, but it’s really obvious how the power structure is gonna work in the house from now on.