Polaroid (2015) Poster

(I) (2015)

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Nice use of old technology to form basis of old-school chiller
bob the moo9 March 2019
This short film is essentially a jump-scare short, which is not a genre light on entries if you look around. Polaroid did produce the director of the Child's Play reboot (if this is a good thing) and this short shows a good control of tone and spooky mood. The film runs longer than you'd expect, but does so because it takes its time to setup the characters of the two leads. This has dated a bit already, but it does engage the viewer to make them more than two screaming starlets.

The actual horror plays out in a familiar way, with the unseen, the half-seen, the suggested, and then of course the sudden fast-moving appearances. It is well done though, and I liked how the film used the old technology to produce an old style ghost story for the most part. The chills are well done, and they make the jump scares seem less cheaply bought than some recent big films. Nothing earth shatteringly new, but worth a look for what it does well.
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4/10
The usual from the genre, but nothing stands out
Horst_In_Translation27 June 2019
Warning: Spoilers
"Polaroid" is a Norwegian 16-minute live action short film from 2015, so almost 5 years old now and this one was directed and written by Lars Klevberg and it was his final work before he, after a break of several years, moved on to full feature filmmaking. Actually, this transition also includes a recently released long version of this short or at least a long movie that is based on this short film. Still, this is not the main reason why Klevberg and this short are getting some attention now. the key reason is that he is the man in charge of directing the newest Child's Play. I hope he improved a bit over the years as I found this one we got here fairly generic and unimpressive. There is one key aspect that is of course closely linked to photography and that you may see very scary and unexpected things on photographs that weren't there when you took the photo or at least you thought so. They are also making use of the idea that it takes a little while for a photo to develop and the gray color to disappear, so they build up a bit of suspense there. Also there is a lot of shadow (and light) play in here. Nonetheless, I felt that this film dragged a bit, way more than it should given the already rather low running time. And I am not sure if it was the bestg idea to turn this into a full feature film. I think from the quick glimpse I had at the imdb rating, the reception was not too strong. Anyway, back to this one here: It is the story of two young women who are best friends and the scary events happening to them one night. No need to go much deeper into detail as all you see is pretty predictable and expected. No fresh glimpses or moments really. Good thing is there is virtually no dialogue in here, so even if you aren't speaking Norwegian, then no need to look for subtitles. But my suggestion is to skip the watch altogether unless you are a huge fan of the actress who is almost named Loch Ness (haha what's up with that) and who enjoyed also a bit of an international breakthrough recently, the other one not so much. Thumbs-down. Watch something else instead.
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4/10
High production values on this average horror short.
bsw0322 March 2019
Warning: Spoilers
I enjoyed the use of sound but I found nothing extraordinary about this film. I actually questioned the choice of haunter, A bit of backstory or another choice of haunter would have been better in my opinion.

I thought the headdress on one of the girls at the beginning was...interesting.
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