METAMORPHOSIS

Starring: Nicholas Vince
Writer: Rob Nevitt
Director: Rob Nevitt

Prepare yourself for three minutes of gleefully-mounted mayhem (almost four in total if you include the credits) seen through the eyes of a Mr. Frost, who awakes in a medical facility following an unspecified treatment. Dr. Carter (Vince) is particularly interested in how Frost is feeling, but before he can ascertain the full details of his patient's condition there's an emergency to deal with. And it's some emergency, believe you me.

After watching so many point-of-view movies that often involve trudging around forests for an hour, occasionally half-glimpsing something that may or may not be a monster (spoiler if you're watching one of those films: if it's only twenty minutes in, it's almost certainly not a monster), it's nice to see that ailing idea being given a shot in the arm here. Seconds into this short film Frost - and, by definition, the viewer - are plunged straight into a world of chaos where you're unsure what's around the next corner or if there's something lurking behind that door to the side. As he tries to find a way out of the place, the craziness (and the soundtrack) ramps up until...well, that would be giving it away, wouldn't it?

Rest assured, the low budget here doesn't in any way mean low class. There's more imagination and incident here in its tiny running time than any tired, churned out big studio genre flick. The reveal just before the end, when you get to see exactly what effect the treatment has had on Frost, is cleverly done and there's a short, sharp shocker of a resolution complete with a marvellously cold final line.

Rob Nevitt's film is a fun, energetic blast. There's grue, gunplay and guilty giggles. There are nods to classic sci-fi/horror tropes but this still retains its own strong identity and as with the all of the best short films you're left wanting more. For genre fans there's some true horror pedigree on show too as Nicholas Vince previously played Chatterer in the first two Hellraiser movies and Kinski in Nightbreed. If you're thinking of watching Taken 3, allow me to suggest that you watch Metamorphosis twenty-seven times instead. You'll enjoy yourself much and you'll still have plenty of time left over to congratulate yourself on supporting a talented independent film-maker.