THE MANNEQUIN *** France 2020 Dir: Kévin Mendiboure. 4 mins
Despite the title, not an unwanted remake of the Andrew McCarthy / Kim Cattrall 80’s classic (admit it, you still own the 7” Starship single) but a simple, eerie short from the French filmmaker Kévin Mendiboure, whose earlier work includes 2017’s feature length supernatural chiller THE FOLLOWER. Here, a young woman (Alexia Zahedi) hears ominous noises while messaging on her phone. She explores her surroundings with her phone torch as her battery runs low – but still finds time for selfies in a situation of probable threat. Mendiboure falls back on suspense tactics inherited from J-horror and giallo (watch out for those mannequins!) but sustains a creepy atmosphere and it pays off with an appropriately malevolent final image.
Review by Steven West