The botanist is a 2009 short film directed by Douglas Godino starting him and Kyle Rappaort. This is a film about two brothers finding a secret trap door in one of their rooms that leads to a lab where a mad scientist has turned himself into a monster.
The plot is pretty simple. You have a person becoming a monster and then have that monster terrorize two people. It gets to the point right away with the transformation scene right at the beginning. The plot does not drag and if you really like your horror films to get right to the killing this is the one for you. Pacing is fast with no time to get bored or slow down.
The Acting is not too bad when it comes to microbudget films. Kyle and Doug are pretty good at acting scared (see Shackled Demon Project) and with Doug playing the monster you get to see a pretty good horror movie monster performance.
The effects are where this movie shines. I have talked about Doug's effects before and plan to again in the future. He does an amazing job showing the Botonist melting in the beginning with shots very reminiscent of slime city. The monster was also very well done with the mask covered in what appears to be slime and other stuff. Add that to the fairly realistic gore it amazes me that two teens did this one.
The Botonist is a rather interesting horror short that we can all sink our teeth into if you like your horror straight to the point. I feel it is well deserving of my rating and hope to see more like this down the line.
You can watch this for free now on the Splatter Films production page on Vimeo.
