How happy would you be if the love of your life had just proposed to you? Over the moon, right? But there’s a catch. He tells you that he is The Grim Reaper. Sure you would laugh it off and think that he’s joking. Then your newly made fiancée gives you a living (or soon to be dead) demonstration just to prove to you that it is no joke. What would you do? Could you settle down with Death as a husband and overlook his occupation?
Death (J.P. Nickel) may have just lost the love of his life Sally (Dalla Andracchio) after revealing the truth about who he really is. Sally runs out of the café where Death had just proposed to her and he chases her down and tries to explain reasonably who he is and what he does. Little does Death realise that his confession has now left him wide open to be blamed for Sally’s parents’ death and the holocaust. Death is just a sensitive guy who proclaims with such earnestness that he is only doing his job.
All of the acting is first-rate, especially from writer/director J.P. Nickel who takes on the lead role in the film. He has such an on-screen acting presence that it is hard to fathom that he is also an underground filmmaker. He projects himself as if he was a mainstream actor and to tell you the truth he has those exact traits and could easily find a career in either field or both as he is currently doing successfully.
“Grim” is an amazing short film and among the best I have ever seen. The humorous script is sharp and the dark subject matter employs a modern day representation. Wonderfully droll and rather affable, the new face of Gen-X wit has arrived and his name is J.P. Nickel. Usually when you watch any short film, there are always scenes that do not shine as much as the rest of the film, feeling forced and out of place. That is definitely not the case here, as Nickel has whittled his script down to pure perfection using all the right elements that deliver a powerful package in a 16 minute running time. I imagine Nickel must have so much more material for “Grim” that couldn’t fit into a short film which could easily see this becoming a hit feature in the near future. Out of this world.
