Wednesday, March 16, 2011

The Shortround: Waffle (Review)

Lets talk about waffles shall we?

I got a quick short via the jaded viewer indie mailbox from director Rafael Deleon called Waffle. It's only a 5 minute short but it packs a punch in it's short running time. So what's this about?

Disfigured science fair champion Wendy seems to have found a new, trustworthy friend in schoolmate Dana. Wendy even takes the step of inviting the girl to her house for dinner, despite being embarrassed by her proud mother. However, when Dana shows her ugly side, Wendy's natural reaction is to do the same. Petty jealousy and competitiveness are not welcome in her household.

the jaded viewer says: I'm not going to rehash the plot as it's really all above. The short is quite effective at getting you uncomfortable as you feel like you're the 4th participant at this dinner which includes Wendy's mom, Dana, the blonde haired pseudo friend and Wendy, our awesome science fair champ whose face we don't see for the first 3 or so minutes.

When a short is this well this short, it's pretty good that it amps up the suspense really fast. The conversation gets going when Wendy details a incident in 5th grade about one of her competitors which ends up with him being bloodied. But Dana seems to have her own motives for this dinner which Wendy overhears and we get to see her violent side and it's pretty intense. By the end we get to see full frontal Wendy face over some waffle desert it's pretty much what you'd expect....kinda ick and WTF.

I gotta say I liked Waffle. It reminded me of a Drew Daywalt or Fewdio short and it's got some good suspense and some solid makeup effects. My only gripes are I wish it was longer and oddly there was not one likable character in it. Also the ending was a little predictable and kind of didn't have the POW! factor I was looking for.

I've seen a lot of shorts of late but this one actually left a rectangular imprinted shape impact in my mind. That's a tough thing to do to the jaded viewer.

Check out the teaser trailer below. For more info, head to the official site. Here's the official blog.






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2 comments:

  1. I really love this short. You really know how effed the situation is when the mom starts dropping F-bombs at the table.

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  2. This short was really awesome, Jeff. Glad you liked it too. This is the way you leave an impression on viewers when you only have 5 minutes. My review for Waffle drops on Monday.

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