'She lives alone' doesn't seem like much on the surface, and that's exactly the point. Even given sparing vivid moments of outburst, this is not a film with any intent to scare outright. It's been a while since I've watched a feature - a short especially - that relies so heavily on atmosphere and subtlety, so this is rather gratifying.
I highly enjoy the set design and decoration, and the seeming period costume design. The filming location is choice, and some close-up shots of the landscape manage to add to the eerie sense here. Die Hexen's ambient score lends tension and unease to the story, as does the impeccable sound design they orchestrate alongside Philip Quinton. The haunting noise disturbing protagonist Maud and her isolated abode is in itself duly captivating - essential to the construct in its way, and certainly to the quiet air of dread.
The active narrative is piecemeal; 'She lives alone' feels less like a complete whole, and more like a saucepan consciously kept on a low boil, stirred occasionally as beats are added. Not least of all when compared to almost any other horror short, there is no ultimate payoff - and that, conversely, IS the payoff. There's a great deal of simmering apprehension in the air, and writer-director Lucy Rose is quite content to leave it at that. Even the climax declines to acutely shock, instead letting the trepidation linger, concluding with a portent of further ill in the story.
It's the patient and open-minded viewer that will appreciate 'She lives alone' the most, as the short has no interest in immediately grabbing our attention. Even for someone who rallies around more nuance-laden cinema, sometimes it can be difficult to engage with a picture this bereft of eventful drama. Still, as it's an approach to horror that's taken less commonly, it is all the more rewarding in that infrequency for anyone willing to entreat with it honestly.
