Overlook 2023 Film Festival – In Gnaw, Cote (Luvia Petersen) has a pesky hangnail that just won’t go away. The obsession turns deadly in a short that arrives at quite a gruesome ending.

Directed by Rosalee Yagihara and written by Meg Turner, the short opens as Cote lays in bed with her lover, played by Bethany Brown. Cote sucks her thumb, trying to free herself of the hangnail, until her girlfriend wakes and tells her to stop doing that. The first few minutes are centered in the domestic space, establishing the relationship between the two women. The scene in bed especially underscores the annoying habits that our partners sometimes have, in this case, Cote’s fixation on the hangnail, to the point that in the opening, all you hear are the sucking sounds and nothing else. It’s a clever use of sound design. Cote’s partner wants her to break the habit of biting her nails, but Cote admits she’s been doing it since she was a kid. This thread is totally relatable, as most of us know the difficulty of trying to break our partner out of bad habits.

As the film escalates, Cote’s obsession grows and grows, ultimately leading to a final minute or two of pure body horror. The pacing here is quite good, leading to a startling ending that also feels well-earned. The blood-soaked conclusion is a stark contrast to the short’s first half, which focuses primary on the intimacy between the lovers and the quiet domestic space.

There’s absolutely potential here for a feature-length film and room for these two characters to grow. Gnaw explores both tenderness and conflict in a relationship before landing at a bonkers ending.

7 Out of 10