The opening minute of Stuck screams “This is a horror film.” A spiral staircase leading to a darkened room, a young woman texting with the exchange appearing as text on the screen as we watch her go back and forth with another young woman, her face lit only by the diegetic light of the cell phone screen. Sophia (Ianua Coeli Linhart) tells Adele her house is “creepy AF” but it is the only house the two of them could afford, and by this point Stuck has done in 70 seconds what takes most horror films their first act to establish.

Writer/Director Arturo David Roncone and Cinematographer Stefano di Stasio have clearly studied at the James Wan school of making scary movies, as we get a long, steady shot of the room as Sophia moves around the attic, while a box in the foreground slowly opens. Sophia pulls a sheet off a mannequin, and slightly out of focus in the background is something crouched in front of the chest.  Cut to close up, cut back to same shot and thing is now not there.  In fairness, directors do it because it is effective, and it is effective here.

As she heads downstairs, Sophie realizes to her horror that she has released a CG demon (well, computer enhanced demon – the practical makeup is excellent, the digital smoke far less so). In order to escape it, she hides in the trunk from which it emerged and tries to call for help on her cell. Once again, cell phone light serves to illuminate the scene – we’ve seen it a thousand times before, but it is nonetheless effective even if we have. Joke’s on Sophia – the demon is still in the trunk with her.  You know how it ends.

Given all that, Stuck is an effective little shock film.  As has been said of Wan’s The Conjuring, it didn’t do anything particularly new or different – it just did what it did really, really well. Halfway through this film I was very comfortable in knowing what was happening, where it was going, and how it would most likely play out.  And yet, the quality of the cinematography, the performances of Linhart and the demon (Emanuele Di Simone), and the exquisite sense of timing in the film make Stuck a fun little film to watch.

Stephen King says a novel is an affair and a short story is a kiss. To extend that metaphor (poorly), if a feature film is a one-night stand, a short film is kissing a stranger on the dance floor.  It doesn’t have to do anything or mean anything more than it is in the moment, and to that end, Stuck is a very effective fun little kiss indeed.