The thing about Sean Cruser’s short film, This Place Only Destroys, is that I’ve lived it and somehow survived.
Brit (Shalini Bathina) has a big meeting coming up, and she’s taking the lead on the presentation because no one else wants it. It doesn’t go well. Her bosses tell her she underdelivered — they know she’s busy, but that’s not good enough. Her co-worker Dave (Mark David Christenson) couldn’t care less. He tells her she can’t let this stuff get to her, and that her job is safe: “You are going to die here.” How encouraging.
But the stress follows her home. An ad pops up promising to relieve exactly the kind of stress she’s carrying — oddly specific, as if it knows her. Sleep doesn’t come. She hears a noise in the dark. Is this real or a nightmare? Then it’s morning, and she’s back at work…
“Her bosses tell her she underdelivered — they know she’s busy, but that’s not good enough.”
I’ve lived this tale. When you’ve been at a company for a very long time, you get comfortable…safe: the steady salary, a job you’re competent at, a routine you could run in your sleep…and retirement a long way away. Meanwhile, the world and technology are moving way faster than you, and the job becomes a grind. Then comes the moment when you realize you’re gonna die here, which begs the question: is this how you want to die?
This Place Only Destroys captures this oppressive grind in a way only horror can. The 9-to-5 is your psychotic mistress. The film is masterfully shot, like it’s on the cusp of a nightmare, where reality and dreams intertwine. Cruser nails the tone perfectly, because the rat race truly is a horror film. For any of you working that 9-to-5, you know exactly what this feels like.
"…The 9-to-5 is your psychotic mistress."
