SLAPFACE / CERT: TBC / DIRECTOR & SCREENPLAY: JEREMIAH KIPP / STARRING: JOSHUA KAUFMAN, NICK GREGORY, LUKAS HASSEL / RELEASE DATE: TBC
Slapface begins with a lone young boy screaming into the wilderness for someone to meet him, and is then followed up with him being chased through the vast expanse of an empty forest by a large, strange, scary-looking monster. It might seem simple to draw conclusions from such a setup, but Slapface soon makes clear that it’s not what it first appears to be.
The short packs a lot into its brief run time, and most of it remains unspoken and only implied. When the boy and the Ogre (as the credits lists it) are running through the forest, the action seems almost playful rather than sinister and, later, we see the state of the boy’s home life, when it becomes apparent that neither he nor his father are dealing with the death of his mother in any kind of healthy way. The full extent of what’s going on is left open to interpretation, and it’s a story that welcomes expansion into a full feature.
The countryside location is filmed beautifully, the fading light of a setting sun still bright in the sky, although the wintry chill of the air holds back any warmth that might be gained from it, while vibrant blue flowers carpeting the ground invoke an otherworldly almost magical atmosphere.
The observation that sometimes monsters can be possessed of more humanity than actual humans is a popular one, but in this case it’s taken a bit further, with the film asking us to consider the circumstances that led to this point and how they might have had an influence on the behaviour of the characters. Slapface is a straightforward story, but there is a lot going on behind it for you to consider after it’s ended.
