BLACK MOON has everything I look for in a horror short, and nothing that I don’t. Incredible atmosphere. No gimmicky tricky cuts or reliance on over the top effects. Small cast, small location, everything tied up in a perfect little bow.

This film understands and utilizes the power of an isolated and cold atmosphere. The familiarity of a dark alley, and the creeping discomfort we all feel walking that dark alley alone, lay the perfect groundwork for a horror film like this.

I like my horror shorts truly short, low on dialogue, and high on tension. It’s difficult to compact a full journey through fear into a short, and I can’t applaud the writers and director (Ryan Graff – story and direction, and Daniel Shafer – screenplay) loudly enough for the complete package we as the viewer are presented with here.

In concept, BLACK MOON touches on the “what if’s” of a Black Moon- the second new moon in a month, a remarkably rare occurrence always rumored to open a window to the supernatural and otherworldly. Any kid who ever heard that superstition surely spent late nights contemplating exactly what the “supernatural” could be, and how the moon’s cold light could “change” them or the world around them. No, this isn’t a werewolf movie, but it explores just what the moon can do. In a fittingly tidal way, the horror itself seems to ebb and flow, and just like the beautiful full moon, is gone in a blink.

BLACK MOON is haunting, effective, grimy, dark… and just like when the moon is hidden by the clouds, the tension lies just beneath the surface or just around the next corner. The beautifully anguished lead character (Fabienne Tournet) gives a stunning and complex performance in a span of less than ten minutes. She carries this film, and hauntingly so.

BLACK MOON is the kind of short I could see being turned into a feature or even a series, but is so perfect in its current format that I almost hope no one touches it, and we can all appreciate this succinct and spooky film for the rest of time, just as it is.