Thursday 19 November 2020

Everyone Laugh at Leanne (2019) - Short Horror Film Review


I recently had the pleasure of watching the M.W Daniels created short horror anthology, End of October. This anthology featured a film of his, October Loner which was quite weird, but not really that surprising seeing as his short in another anthology I saw this year, The Isolation Horrors was also quite weird. This style of horror is effective due to the uneasiness that comes from feeling like you are witnessing a world in which the normal rules do not apply. I was expecting this same style to be in his short horror film Everyone Laugh at Leanne, and I wasn't disappointed. 

Leanne (Kerry Newton) has everything she could want in her life, including a loving boyfriend (Tom Coulston) and great friends. However, one day things take a turn for the violently surreal, but are the horrific events really happening, or are they all a product of her paranoid mind?

I didn't think I would understand the plot, as Daniels excels at abstract stories, I felt this one could be open to interpretation. Initially things felt very down to earth and normal, but as the 13 minutes play out it all gets darker and darker. Parts of this really stood out for me, especially a scene that takes place in broad daylight. The lack of a clear explanation for the events that happen led to me drawing my own conclusions. This could be seen as a straight horror, but it can also be seen as a look at mental health, either perspective working.

With a small cast of five people enough happens in Everyone Laugh at Leanne to keep things entertaining, and there is an unnerving feel that persists throughout, helped along by things shifting up to keep the viewer unbalanced, never sure what is real and what is imagined.

SCORE:

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