Is it bad taste to base your horror film on alcoholism and recovery? Oh, hell, yes. Are we no longer able to laugh or scream at anything anymore? Because Rakefet Abergel’s short film, Boo, does both of those things.
The film opens with a young woman, Devi (Rakefet Abergel), covered in blood and driven to a safe location by her fiancé, Jared (Josh Kelly). This car ride features a lot of screaming and crying from the start. Immediately, we flash back less than an hour where Devi and her friends celebrate Devi receiving her 7-year chip. She feels pride and confidence after having not drank any alcohol in such a long time.
“…her friends celebrate Devi receiving her 7-year chip.”
Fast forward a few minutes, and a mysterious man (Michael Villar) arrives as Devi is left alone by her friends. From here, everything goes horribly wrong for Devi at the hands of the strange man.
Running a scant fifteen minutes long, Boo takes a dark turn in the end as you’d expect; things are not as they seem. Overall, Abergel’s short is a good one and does what an effective horror film should do by forcing you to watch it again to pick up on the clues you missed at the beginning. The reveal is clever and, tone-wise, the horror and gore is light. I might have preferred more gruesome effects, just to pump up the thrills and move it more into the horror camp.
"…forcing you to watch it again and pick up on the clues you missed..."
