In every horror film the rule is that something is definitely not quite right. What differs from film to film is at what point this “something” is revealed (if at all). Stephanie Rogers’ brilliant short film Amniotic reads as a video diary of one sister’s connection to another. Following the death of “grandfather”–our narrator explains how she received a plastic doll named Daggie, while her sister received her grandmother’s silver ring. While never hearing anything from the sister directly, we find out how normal she is in comparison to our narrator. “Things don’t seem right with her,” she says, “in my head.” Rogers does an amazing job of allowing the viewer to get comfortable with our narrator before paranoia, fear and aggression erupt in a bloody mess following a change in the sisterly bond. Amniotic, as we learn, comes from the Greek “blood of victim caught”–and that “something” follows exactly that idea as the film concludes with a lovely, bloody payoff. (James King)
Dir. Stephanie Rogers