Short Sharp Shocks: The Dump - Review

Short Sharp Shocks is a review series that will focus on some of the best available horror shorts.  I've attended a number of genre film festivals over the years and something that has struck me is the consistently great quality of the work being done in the short form.  We have many more great shorts to review and share over the course of the coming months but please feel free to make some recommendations either via our @AOTDBlog twitter feed or by emailing us at aotd.glasgow@gmail.com.

Moonlighting from her day job as Fangoria magazine’s director of marketing, Rebekah McKendry turns her hand to directing with her debut short The Dump.  With a hilarious script courtesy of her husband David Ian McKendry, this twisted tale focuses on two serial killers whose paths cross while dumping the bodies of their latest victims at a remote location on the edge of the city.  Their initial wariness soon turns amusingly to relaxed bonhomie as they muse on their murderous nature and share advice.

There’s a lot to admire here.  First there’s the quirky performances of Matthew Currie Holmes (The Yuppie) and Jack Bennett (The Redneck).  There’s also a lot of choice dialogue packed into the 11 minute run time and both actors deliver killer performances (bad pun alert) that ensure maximum laughs are drawn from the sharp script.  It almost feels like a protracted but consistently funny skit from a comedy sketch show (minus the annoying canned laughter).  At 11 minutes it doesn’t come close to outstaying its welcome and I could easily have spent more time in the company of these two personable maniacs.

Given her day job you would expect Rebekah McKendry to be well versed as to what makes a successful horror short.  With The Dump she succeeds in gifting us with an punchy gem of a short horror movie wrapped around the brilliantly macabre notion of a serial killer meet cute.  A quick glance over at IMDB reveals that this husband and wife team have another two shorts in the bag; Witches Brew and The Barista.  I hope to have the opportunity to check them out soon.

OUR SCORE