Stiffy

Stiffy is as good as any short film i've seen so l'm really glad I got the chance. the ending is hilarious but the black nature of its comedy gives it a real edge that other films all too often lack. To make this film this funny and somehow keep what is basically necrophilia the right side of good taste - I've never seen a film or TV program achieve anything like that. The performance of the blond girl who plays the corpse is so good that you don't notice it, which is the point, and the main male actor delivers a performance that seems to effortlessly convey this wonderful film's curious essence.

An orderly in a morgue "meets" a young woman while she lies dead on a gurney in the corridor. He takes her into another room and finds a strange attraction to her which she seems to feel as well as she returns his affection the best she can. Their relationship grows as they spend more time together but is there a future here?

Despite having a terrible title that suggests something a lot cruder and basic, this short film is actually delightfully absurd in the way it depicts necrophilia in a (sort of) tasteful way. Of course there isn't any sex or discussion of this relationship because it is a comedy rather than an issue film so instead we have sweet music playing over a montage of them bonding and being together. None of it is hilarious and in no one scene is evidence of genius but the overall delivery of it makes it work best as a whole. Being short as well means that it builds nicely to the punch line, which I found very funny and hadn't seen coming.

As the orderly, Oram has to carry a lot of the film and he does it well – being sweet without being creepy. The film's writer does a good job as the corpse in question while Wright's direction is good and uses limited lighting to restrict the audience's view and focus on the action. The filmstock being a bit grainy and browned looking also helped to make this work as a sort of romantic montage of a film. Overall then, not hilarious at any one moment but the total package is very amusing and inventive and certainly worth looking at for all the three minutes that it will last.