As always, please don't read without having viewed the episode first.
There WILL BE SPOILERS!
Though this wasn't the most original episode of Two Sentence Horror Stories, I
still found it to be one of the most affecting this season. This was the second
episode of the season that was directed by H directors Rania Attieh and Daniel
Garcia and I found some similarities to this and the "Fix" episode from a few
weeks back.
Here, a young Hispanic girl, Laura (Isla Sunar of The 100 and the Charmed
reboot) wanders around the morgue while her mother, Grace, (Michelle Arvizu of
Orphan Black) works her shift. As you would expect, lots of creepiness ensues.
Laura even tries escape a scary sound by hiding in a corpse locker, which
proceeds to lock her in. This is only the first few minutes of the twenty that
the episode is allotted.
As many horror viewers might expect, there is a twist at the end that many will
probably see coming considering that Grace comes off immediately as the worst
mother in the world for letting her daughter in a place like that at night. What
isn't expected is how effective the emotional content is delivered. Those
directors really known how to handle short form poignancy well. The
cinematography is great and manages to use surprisingly bright lighting
effectively in a such a creepy context. I though the use of sound was creepy and
effective. A few sound effects even took me off guard.
I don't
want to spoil anything, but I recently watched the new international horror
film, The Night, and some of this episode reminded me of certain scenes in it,
so that pleased me as well (you should all see that when it is released, by the
way). To say more would spoil the whole thing, so just re-watch it to see how
good of a job the directors did setting up for the final twist. Those awkward
first scenes were off-putting for a reason.
Not sure why The
CW aired this and last week's episode with a re-run when they've been doubling
up this season so far, but an episode this good deserves a little more attention
than a double airing would normally get it.
Two Sentence Horror Stories - El Muerto - Review
Feb 11, 2021
Reviews Two Sentence Horror Stories VG
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