The story opens as the eponymous Bill (Yianni Sines) and Lilith (Deana Taheri) sit down to dinner. Bill is abusive, berating and belittling Lilith, feeding her backhanded compliments, comparing her to other women – women with Brazilian Butt lifts and other plastic surgery – and demanding to be served and obeyed. Lilith, for her part is mousey and subservient.

Until.

Pushed one step too far, Lilith takes a knife and stabs Bill to death. Rather than feeling remorse or fear, Lilith exhibits a giddiness and uses the corpse of her abusive husband as a sort of puppet, dancing him around like the character in Weekend at Bernie’s.

Bill is at heart a sort of wish-fulfillment daydream. The childlike Lilith tries so hard to please Bill. She is subservient, submissive and servile. And nothing she does is good enough. I think we can all identify with this situation, whether it be a relationship or that terrible job we got right out of high school. And oh, to think there might come a day when we not only get vengeance on our oppressor, but also a chance to make fun out of it? Heavenly! Lilith has no thought of long-term consequences, she merely shifts from submission to childlike play (albeit with a corpse as a toy) and ultimately freedom!

It’s not a short to take overseriously, but it in subtext is a story about abuse, about how a victim of abuse can regress and lose agency, and it offers a treat for the fictitious victim — or the real ones watching — in the form of a wish fulfillment that is innocent and joyous in its macabre dance.

This short is charming and dreamy, and especially with its musical score (by Benjamin Squires) somewhat cartoony. Taheri is great as the silent protagonist, and Sines does an excellent job of being a prick, then a convincing, dancing doll of a corpse.