What does it take to truly craft a terrifying tale? Mood, story arcs, and compelling characters are all essential aspects, but if the art of media has taught us anything, it’s that there’s no time requirement on creating something genuinely horrific. 

Platform, a British short film written, directed, and produced by Mark Pluck, takes aim at those concepts by packing a punch in a very condensed time frame. Clocking in at just over eight minutes, it stars Finlay Robertson as an unfaithful husband who must face the repercussions of his actions while isolated at a deserted railway platform in the dark of night.

The tone of Platform is laid out immediately as we see the main character being driven to his destination amidst an eerie, bleak wooded area. Once he arrives, he finds that he’s the only one there, and has forty minutes to kill while he waits for his delayed train.

We get a sense for who he is and what his life circumstances are as we see him exchange text messages with the woman he was just with, who is clearly not his wife. Because of the atmospheric spookiness we were introduced to at the beginning, we already feel a sense of unease as the camera toggles back and forth between his vantage point, and one from the grainy, black and white security cameras overhead. 

The supernatural elements of the story come in quietly; so much, in fact, that you’ll find yourself second guessing if what you thought you saw was actually there. We see the anxiety of our main character raise as he, too, begins to feel the jitters from his surroundings. Matters quickly escalate from there, as we are witness to the grim outcome of his quandary. 

Platform is a tale of consequence, and the domino effect of our decisions and actions. There is beauty in the simplistic ambiguity of the situation he’s in, and whether the events unfolding are punishment for his transgressions, or simply a matter of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Either way, the movie delivers an ominous, expeditious ghost story set against a perfectly sinister backdrop.

7 out of 10