If anything, writer/director Will Crouse‘s short film The Coder really underscores the stress that comes with working for a start-up company, specifically a Bitcoin app. More specifically, this is shown through the film’s lead character, Mary (Abbey Toot). As Mary’s mental health spirals, Crouse turns her workplace into a true nightmare landscape.

The film opens with a hellish dream sequence, filmed mostly in red and black tones. Mary receives awful news from her doctor. She cries alone in the dark as her mother, played by Denise Smolarek, barks in her ear, shattering her self-confidence and sense of worth. This frightening opening also features Mary’s horrible tech bro boss, Thad (Mickey O’Sullivan). It’s evident that everything in Mary’s life, in particular her job, causes her consternation.

The film then cuts to Mary with her head on her keyboard, waking from a brief nap at her desk. She receives a flurry of emails from users ditching the app and demanding their money back. Bitcoin sure is a risky business, especially when the company’s CEO has no idea what he’s doing. Mary’s co-workers, Aaron (Yuchi Chiu) and Ellis (Sean Kazarian), aren’t all that helpful and only add to Mary’s worries.

In just 15 minutes, Crouse really captures the strain and negative impact of the workplace on Mary’s mental health. Toot, meanwhile, turns in quite a performance. She looks frazzled from the opening and downright wide-eyed and delirious by the time the credits roll. From the outset, it’s clear that Mary isn’t going to survive the workplace environment, and the short focuses on one stressor after another that piles up. In the background, Mary hears her mother telling her that she’ll lose everything, including her health care, if the app goes under.

The Coder works well as a short. Each performance is solid, and Crouse transforms cubicle life at a start-up company into pure horror. The real scares aren’t from anything supernatural, but rather, one woman’s job insecurity and the fear that she’ll lose everything, and no one will care.