South by Southwest Film Festival 2025 – Everyone knows about the Monday morning blues and the dread of staring down a new workweek. In writer/director Cam Banfield‘s short film How Was Your Weekend?, Monday morning and the return to the corporate office becomes a pure horror show.

James Morosini stars in the short as Steven. Before he even clocks in, his co-workers barrage him with the same question over and over again: how was your weekend? It begins from the very moment he enters the elevator. However, Steven didn’t have a good weekend. His girlfriend, Devin, left him a voicemail and broke up with him. During the Monday morning shift, he plays it over and over again. Yet, all of his co-workers smile and wait for him to respond to the tired question. It becomes suffocating.

Banfield really showcases the alienation that corporate work can cause. Steven’s office is barren. A single picture with a cliched statement about dreams hangs on the white walls, but that’s it. None of the office conversations have much depth beyond the short’s title that repeats over and over again, until it becomes grating, likely on purpose. There’s even one worker who constantly groans like a zombie, as employees circle around various Keurig machines. Banfield’s themes here aren’t exactly subtle, but I’m always a sucker for horror movies about labor. Too few focus on corporate culture. Banfield shows how the corporate office space and all of its absurdities work so well as a horror movie setting.

Steven’s boss, Nancy (Rachael Harris), wants him to smile and answer the simple question. She becomes demanding and threatening, and the last few minutes really lean into some bonkers horror territory that’s a blast to watch. In terms of tone, Banfield crafted a clever horror comedy with a heartbroken protagonist who doesn’t want to comply to corporate culture’s alienation or superficiality.

How Was Your Weekend? mixes horror and comedy well to lampoon the 9-5 office culture. The simple premise that is the film’s title becomes the stuff of nightmares. Banfield’s short has plenty of laughs mixed with sheer horror and dread. This short film gives the Monday morning blues a whole new meaning.