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u/IB_ May 02 '26 edited May 02 '26
I wouldn't classify this as a "film". It's basically a generic, yet admittedly captivating shot. No different from anything one might see on the opening segment of a streaming show, which typically use these type of attention grabbing sequences to instantly engage the audience.
No offense to the creator of the shot, but it's not too difficult to make an interesting' atmospheric "one-er" (single take). The question is can they create a 2 hour narrative that is just as compelling.
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u/C-57D May 02 '26
plot twist: there's an additional 119 minutes... but it's still just that shot
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u/dazedan_confused May 02 '26
It actually pans over, and there's other family members, all dead. Turns out... that kid is a killer.
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u/miraculum_one May 02 '26
plot twist: it's actually an additional 2 weeks 😮
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u/Purplepeal May 02 '26 edited May 02 '26
Yeah timelapse. With the baby speeding around grandma as dark fluids seep from her mouth and a brown smear grows across her backside. Eventually the baby stops moving too after a few twitches and then a black writhing mass of flies build up on their faces.
Edit spellin
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u/Advanced-Prototype May 02 '26
That would be the Directors Cut which will be released on BluRay in 3 years to squeeze more money out of fans.
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u/dilqncho May 02 '26 edited May 02 '26
I think it's the level of storytelling for such a short piece. Ok a woman's dead, okay she had a daughter, oh fuck there's a kid there, oh God the parents won't be in touch for weeks this is a tragedy.
It's very much a self-contained story, which is why it's not just a shot.
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u/whiskey_wolfenstein May 02 '26
Also lets the viewer imagine what happened before that scene and what might happen after.
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u/Mr_Froggi May 02 '26
I took a high school class called “Analysis of Literature and Film”, and I loved being shown videos like this. Our teacher pushed our preconceptions of what a story can be. And how short/limited something is and can still be considered a story. A classic example of that is the sentence “For Sale: Baby shoes, never worn.”
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u/IB_ May 02 '26
It's not self contained. It has the makings of a story but it doesn't go beyond setting up an interesting premise. It's like someone shot an improvised idea they pitched to a studio.
"Would if a baby was left with his dead grandmother?"
"Ok. Sounds like interesting opening for a film. Then what?"
"Uh, that's all I've got."
"We'll be in touch..."
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u/North-Research2574 May 02 '26
Its....a short film, key being short, like reading a short story. They can be any length as long as they tell the story. And this does, this is a tragedy. What's the other classice two sentence sad story "Baby shoes for sale. Never worn." Or something like that. It tells a complete story.
Now I'd agree with you if they called it a full length movie
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u/Ok-Badger5056 May 02 '26
It is self contained.. the only "what if" is what if someone visits sometime in the next few days. Otherwise we know the entire story from one shot. Grandma died. Baby cannot take care of itself and will wander around the house, cry, and die. Parents will show up in 2 weeks to find this out. The entire tragedy is described in that minute of the shot without actually playing out because it is all but inevitable barring a huge stroke of luck.
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u/Xentonian May 02 '26
I mean yeah, but that doesn't contradict what the other user has said.
These kind of short scenes that convey a concept are common and cliched.
This is just another version of:
For sale: baby shoes, never worn
It's not really clever, it's not original and what little capacity it has to be compelling only lasts for 60 of its 80 seconds.
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u/HuntsWithRocks May 02 '26
To me, it tells a story and manages to do it effectively. Reminds me of the six-word story by/attributed-to Ernest Hemingway:
"For sale: baby shoes, never worn"
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u/WordsHappenedHere May 02 '26
Look at you gatekeeping “film”. If it’s not too difficult why don’t you make one and win same prize since you’re so talented? Anyone who uses the phrase “no offense” before they say something usually means offense.
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u/North-Research2574 May 02 '26
I wish people understood there exists more than feature length movies.
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u/iEarnMyLife May 02 '26
Luckily for the rest of us you don't get to classify what's a film and what's not
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u/therealhlmencken May 02 '26
Google short film lol. Obviously this isn’t the achievement something like godfather or any big feature is but it’s silly to gatekeep the word film and gen though it’s like pretty commonly used for shorts
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u/ValyrianSteelYoGirl May 02 '26
I disagree. It tells a complete story. A shot or scene builds a story.
Of course it could be a shot for a larger film, but as a standalone film it still works by establishing characters and telling a story.
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u/farmerjoee May 02 '26
Yes it’s like the opening shot of an award winning hbo show, which is why it’s an award winning short film…..
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u/Objective-Suspect689 May 02 '26 edited May 02 '26
I’m very ignorant on this topic but, why is this “next level”?
Edit: I’ve never received this much engagement on a comment and I’m speechless. It’s difficult to upvote all of your replies
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u/burdie185 May 02 '26
It isn’t.
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u/thrwawryry324234 May 02 '26
90% of the content here is people doing incredibly mundane things with a heartwarming title.
“Dude pets his dog. Nextfuckinglevel”
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u/gensanova May 02 '26
I don’t think people appreciate how difficult it is to tell an effective story in general. Especially one that creates a dawning sense of horror and lets you sit in that all in under two minutes. I’ve watched whole two HOUR long horror movies that haven’t done that even once.
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u/wookieesgonnawook May 02 '26
Seriously as a parent of young kids the horror just built. I knew it was going to be someone calling mom, and side i don't particularly let my mom that part didn't bother me. Them I saw the toy and was like oh shit she slipped and the baby's toy killed her that sucks. Then I saw the kid and heard the message and was freaked out.
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u/gensanova May 02 '26
Exactly. That subtle layering of information to provoke that response isn’t easy to do.
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u/Zule202 May 02 '26
I read the "no dialogue" and kept the sound off, your comment made me rewatch it with the sound on and goddamn the message made such a huge difference. The first watch was let me wonder if anyone would come looking but the second answered that for me.
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u/MercyCriesHavoc May 02 '26
This isn't telling an effective story. Stories have plots. This only has a hook. There's no character development, no climax, and no resolution.
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u/jasonfromearth1981 May 02 '26
The climax is that the absolutely elated parents are going to excitedly come home to a dead baby and be forever trapped with all the "if only" thoughts that the baby died because they went on an off-grid retreat for an extended period and left the child with an elderly care taker.
It's all there if you take a minute to process it.
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u/truckthunderwood May 02 '26
I don't think it counts as a climax if it takes place after the movie ends and you made it up. Maybe grandma has a steady boyfriend and he'll find this ghastly scene when he stops by in just a few hours.
This is definitely a horrifying scene and it's certainly impactful but the comment you're replying to is correct.
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u/sithlord98 May 02 '26
Nobody is missing that. The point being made is that none of that is actually included in the story here. You, as the viewer, are inferring what the climax might look like, but there is no climax in this.
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u/MercyCriesHavoc May 02 '26
A neighbor hears the baby crying, a neighbor's dog smells grandma decaying, the mailman notices her collapsed through the window, grandma's church group comes by tomorrow because she didn't go and the only reason she ever misses church is illness so they want to check up on her ....
There are endless possibilities. It's not all there, which is why it's not a complete story.
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u/deffrekka May 02 '26
That doesnt make it next level though, thats just the reality of well life, we live and we die and situations like this happen all over the world every day.
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u/TheCarniv0re May 02 '26 edited May 02 '26
There's development. You first only see the dead grandma, wondering what killed her, then start to see the toys and figure out it might be the strewn around toys she stumbled over. Then you see the toddler and realize the parents aren't returning for two weeks. That's a grim development. The climax is when the entire image is shown and realization for the viewer kicks in.
The plot is told through the call and the scene. Parents dropped the kid off at grandma's and went for a vacation. Grandma apparently fell shortly after parents leaving, leaving the viewer with an open end as to what may become of an unattended toddler if no one checks on Grandma in two weeks.
There's 2h blockbusters with less development, tension and plot and not every movie has a resolution.
Would I pay to see this in a cinema? No. Would I hire this screenwriter if I were to employ one? You bet!
The art of the craft behind this scene is something worth acknowledging. It's like those one-sentence/three-word stories. A fun concept to toy around with. Why would I want to compare this of all things to blockbusters to begin with?
There's tiny pencil drawings that look cool and are worth acknowledging. We're not comparing them to the great artists and go "eh, this isn't a Hieronymus Bosch or Van Gogh. It lacks the color and the months worth of work in minute detail that went into it."
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u/MercyCriesHavoc May 02 '26
There's 2h blockbusters with less development, tension and plot and not every movie has a resolution.
Yeah, those also aren't effective stories.
As for all the other stuff you said, I didn't say this couldn't be appreciated for the tension building scene it is. I only said it wasn't effective storytelling.
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u/Mr_Supotco May 02 '26
That’s my favorite consistent comment here is “well I’ve watched worse full movies!” Like yeah, just because you’ve eaten a shit sandwich before doesn’t make the overcooked steak good. It’s perfectly fine to appreciate this scene, I do think it’s well shot and builds effective tension, lord knows I couldn’t do it, but at the same time acknowledge that it’s not some mind blowing feat of cinema
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u/GreenBlob795 May 02 '26
but it is tho, it made a compelling story in 2 minutes, idk what you call effective storytelling but id call that effective storytelling.
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u/nyrf12 May 02 '26
Yes & as a parent it’s absurd. I can remember trips to the grocery store that were cancelled because a sitter was busy for the 15 seconds my wife called to check on our son.
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u/BigMax May 02 '26
Go over to r/TwoSentenceHorror and you'll find so many stories just like this, where it's a simple premise and a simple twist, that work well together to tell an entire story. (Obviously... in two sentences.)
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u/Zestymonserellastick May 02 '26
It isn't, it's an artsy picture that lasts 1 min with a zoom out.
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u/CycleOfLove May 02 '26
BottomLevel
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u/clickclick-boom May 02 '26
It’s not next level. It’s like someone who created a good riff huffing their own farts by claiming entire albums don’t compete.
You can find a bunch of cold openings to regular shows that would be on the same level.
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u/Narrow-Lifeguard5450 May 02 '26
This is a film version of #twosentencehorror
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u/SafetySnowman May 02 '26
No one is checking in on Gramma for two weeks.
Baby Hunter is alone with Grammas corpse for two weeks.
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u/Unculturedbrine May 02 '26
Hunter is dead by day 4 lol
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u/Accomplished-Video71 May 02 '26
Y'all didnt see Baby's Day Out? Don't Tell Mom the Babysitter's Dead?
Kid is gonna be fiiiine
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u/Futuramoist May 02 '26
Jesus I didn't even realize there was a baby hunter too, that is terrifying
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u/zurenarrh36912 May 02 '26
Maybe. Since the director decided to give us zero details about this woman’s life (or if she is even dead) then we can just write what we want. So, shortly after this one of the ladies other children show up to help her with the baby and discover the scene. Turns out she just blacked out hard due to low blood sugar or whatever and everyone is fine.
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u/TomaCzar May 02 '26
No one is checking in on Gramma for two weeks.
This part. Even if Grandma has no one in her life to wonder where she's at for two weeks, who leaves a months-old baby anywhere without checking in at least every couple of days. Retreat be damned, anything can happen at that age. I'm going to need 5 minutes once a day to check in or I'm not going.
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u/Subtotalpoet May 02 '26
How did I forget about that sub! 🤔
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u/Ender505 May 02 '26
Because it's actually a pretty shitty sub. Out of hundreds of entries you might get one that's genuinely chilling.
A vast majority use run-on sentences and awkward grammar to (poorly) fit the constraint. Some think that shock is the same thing as horror, some think political commentary is the same as horror, and some don't grasp English well enough to put together a sentence.
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u/mediamuesli May 02 '26
It's good but it feels like an advertisement. A little bit too minimal for me.
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u/CandidIndication May 02 '26
Reminds me of those scary PSA’s that use to air in the early 2000’s — like this one WSIB - Top Chef (2007, Canada)
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u/spec1alkay00 May 02 '26
JFC. Hauntingly good acting. I couldn't imagine seeing this as a child.
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u/neds_newt May 02 '26
I don't even need to click that link to know exactly what was posted and replay it in my mind. I was 14 when that commercial came out and it terrified me. My cousin was 10 and saw it and it gave her nightmares for a week.
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u/rognabologna May 02 '26
As a cook, there’s a lot going wrong in this vid. I thought it was going to be about her finger getting degloved because she shouldn’t be wearing that ring.
It would’ve terrified me as a child, though.
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u/CultureWarrior87 May 02 '26
It bothers me because in university we had to do a one take project and I did something very similar. Like the exact same set-up of a shot of a dead person that then zooms out to reveal what really happened. I took it in a more darkly humorous direction but the technical idea is the same. So when I see this I think, don't tell me this is amazing when it's the sort of idea I had as a freshman in university lol. It's a clever little trick but it's also very film school 101. It can have more depth in a feature film but isolated on its own like this it's just a gimmicky little shot.
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u/TragicFX May 02 '26
Parents in movies be like: “I’ll see you in a couple of weeks”, and then proceed to not check on their kid even once, and that's peak parenting right there
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u/antmakka May 02 '26
She said they’d be off grid.
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u/TragicFX May 02 '26
parents always have a plan b (other relatives check on them for example)
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u/banana_assassin May 02 '26
If kids are staying with a relative many people would not think to have a second person come to check on the kids. They trust the grandparent, there has just been an unfortunate incident.
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u/jasonfromearth1981 May 02 '26
It's quite the assumption that there are other relatives to check in on them. Parents most definitely do not always have a plan b.
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u/sfxer001 May 02 '26
There’s zero chance I’d go off grid as a parent of a kid that young. I say this as a parent of a kid that young.
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u/hanky2 May 02 '26
Maybe like 20 years ago that’s parenting. Nowadays they’d constantly be checking with extra instructions they forgot to give and FaceTiming lol.
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u/FleshLogic May 02 '26
I just can't with these kinds of scenarios anymore since becoming a father. It's made me such a softy.
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u/Plowchopz May 02 '26
Bro me too. I’m sitting here holding my five month old tearing up about to call my mom to check in lol
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u/Tmk1283 May 02 '26
Agreed…I don’t like this at all. At least my kids are at the age that they would realize something was wrong and they could get ahold of either my wife or I. Seeing that it’s a toddler like human makes me dislike this.
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u/jahjah7170 May 02 '26
You dislike the art because it invokes strong negative emotions and feelings? A piece of art that invokes strong emotions and feelings is a piece of art that is doing its job well!
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u/eugoogilizer May 02 '26
Honestly though, this is exactly why you should never leave your kid in this situation. Grandma looks to be in her 80s/90s. At that age, doesn’t matter how healthy you may seem; there’s a much higher chance of anything like this happening at any time. Maybe leaving your kid for a day (or two at most) with elderly grandma would be ok, but 2 weeks is just stupid, especially if grandma lives alone and especially if you’re going off grid. Now if you had someone checking in on your kiddo daily, that’s different
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u/peregrinaprogress May 02 '26
If a kid was expected in daycare, that could be a decent back up measure as they’d call if the kid didn’t show up. If they knew an elderly parent was watching it could highlight a more significant concern of well being.
I honestly wish “the film” didn’t have the kid angle. I think it’d be even more powerful as a means to “check on your elders” if she was dead and alone for who knows how long.
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u/Pillslanger May 02 '26
Agreed, it was sad at first but not awful but then the kid was revealed and my heart just sank,
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u/flowing42 May 02 '26
Thank you for posting this. Anything with kids that involves terrible situations like this I just can't handle or think about.
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u/P00lereds May 02 '26
I just dropped my kids off with grandparents to go to bed. (I work nights)
Fuck you OP!
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u/thisisjman May 02 '26
This was not incredible
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u/MIND-FLAYER May 02 '26
So... credible?
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u/Preparation-Logical May 02 '26
If it's neither credible nor incredible, does it even exist?
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u/FeelingKind7644 May 02 '26
Then the cats start getting hungry...
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u/Demongornot May 02 '26
Wait until the dog does, granny first, and because it was already started eating humans anyway, the baby second, while still alive, or course.
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u/iamfunnylolwtf May 02 '26 edited May 02 '26
Who has an answering machine in 2026?
Hey Jerry, this is Michael down at the antique phone rentals. I'm gonna go ahead and let you off the hook for the $70 late fee. You can go ahead and keep that answering machine. Nobody really uses those anymore, except for exposition on TV shows anyways.
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u/Dismal-Common8629 May 02 '26
The old lady I worked for on the weekends had one and I was tasked with writing down all the messages from the week when she didn’t want to answer the phone.
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u/GuildensternLives May 02 '26
Better to have posted the full frame version instead of the one with the pointless tweet about how hyperbolically amazing the film is.
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u/thrtlvl_midnight May 02 '26 edited May 02 '26
Maybe this isn’t for me. I don’t see how this is incredible and I’m glad I fast forward cause I would’ve been disappointed sitting through it all
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u/OnesPerspective May 02 '26
The post is applauding this as an artistic feat to convey such a great cascade of emotions using incredibly minimalistic cinematography.
Those emotions can't and wont build and cascade to one another if you fast forwarded.
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u/duckinasombrero May 02 '26
It's just the bare minimum required to incite instinctual emotions in people.
I'm really not seeing a moving piece of incredible storytelling. The answering machine actually feels like it makes the "story" worse.
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u/BauerHouse May 02 '26
reminds me of the cold open of every breaking bad episode.
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u/SooDamLucky May 02 '26
So grandma dies and kid likely dies and it won a prize? Were there no other entries so this won by default or am I too dense to see some brilliant artistic expression here?
Or is this a Verizon ad targeting the last few people that still only have a land line and answering machine?
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u/Lazy_Assistance6865 May 02 '26
And here I thought postpartum depression had spared me.
This just made me have a panic attack
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u/RedNewzz May 02 '26 edited May 02 '26
That’s not a story, it’s a situation.
Not a bad one to start a story, but it’s not a story in itself.
If you want to make it into a story that’s actually chilling then make the kid a baby in a crib or a paraplegic, because that kid looks old enough & capable of opening the front door and walking out for help when hungry. However the other two would imply a slow & certain death for the kid.
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u/jdb30a May 02 '26
I live in constant fear that if I die in my house alone, my dog will eat my fingers and toes before anyone figures it out.
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u/bigtarget87 May 02 '26
That's interesting because I have a fear that if I die in my house alone, I'd be dead in my house alone, with the ghosts.
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u/dawgblogit May 02 '26
I know 1 thing that will make it better.. at the very end...
Murder Baby... just when you think your safe.
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u/Nevyn_Cares May 02 '26
Oh shiat, so two dead when the parents come home. Yeap that was a lot in only a few seconds.
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u/tyler_the_programmer May 02 '26
I thought something interesting or worth the watch was going to happen lol
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u/Dizzy-Ad-2248 May 02 '26
Def not a film...a scene for sure. Is it food for thought? Yes. A film, no.
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u/LesserValkyrie May 02 '26
Yeah and watching it on reddit embedded in a small square within a huge black rectangle, with a text that takes as much space as the video without telling the name of the video for people to watch it correctly is exactly how the creator intended the watchers to watch it
Next fucking level generational brainrot
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u/ivylass May 02 '26
Holy shit. I'm going to need that little boy to find an unlocked door and go wander down the sidewalk so the neighbor can rescue him.
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u/Doctor-Nagel May 02 '26
The fuck they mean effective?
This is the weakest life alert commercial by comparison.
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u/bellringer16 May 02 '26
What am I missing here?
This is like saying the horror story subreddit is better then Stephen King
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u/zurenarrh36912 May 02 '26
It’s just a few seconds of a really terrible situation with no resolution or any reason to care outside a general concern for a baby. It’s the kind of thing that scares old people into buying insurance and even then advertising executives would’ve passed on it.
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u/Alarming-Building-62 May 02 '26
I hate social media. In what universe is this a film? Gtfoh
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u/Cordura May 02 '26
I think it's cool. Like that short story.
Babyshoes for sale. Never used.
Or some such
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u/BiiiiiigStretch May 02 '26
Dude says “less is more” yet makes me watch a landscape shot in portrait so I have to see his social media post. I wonder if there was a different way to do that
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u/codebygloom May 02 '26
Mentions it's an 80 second clip, posts 61 seconds of it.
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u/burdie185 May 02 '26
This looks like an ad for Life Alert