Acide

Opening with a shot of a teddy bear by the side of the road, this film doesn't pull any punches by the threat posed by its villain - acid rain. There is a little bit of gore, but mostly we are not spared any knowledge as the scream of those ineffectively fleeing is played out over the teddy dissolving in the acid. On top of this we see an infant left in a car, and the whole thing is chilling and little disturbing. From here we cut to a family fleeing across the countryside looking for shelter, and again it seems pretty apparent here that this is not the normal disaster movie structure where our heroes are fine, and a few characters we sort of care about are sacrificed.

It continues this intensity throughout, and is a more effective short film for it - effective because of how quickly it brings home the horror of the situation in a way that a feature film may not have been able to, because it would have had to pad out in a way the short does not. Here we are thrown into the worst case scenario so we understand it, then we are introduced to characters who may be in that same scenario. The performances are convincing and the pace of the film keeps things moving over any small quibbles in the detail. A strong horror short.