Demon (25:41)
Caleb Slain; Dust.tv; IMDb; Short of the Week; Vimeo; YouTube

This 2018 short film was presented by Alter in 2020.

I came across this on Alter in 2023, and pretty much as soon as I started watching it, I thought I had seen it before. Most likely I previously saw it on Short of the Week, but I don't really remember. Whenever or wherever I saw it before, I guess I didn't like it enough to write a review, but this time I did. I still didn't like it enough to rate it very highly, but it's certainly worth mentioning. It's nicely atmospheric, being set at night, with a western vibe (though it seems to be set in the present).

A wounded man named Marco comes upon a cabin where a man named Bill lives. Bill takes care of him, then falls asleep. There's clearly some backstory we never learn about (I think it was at some point available to read on the official website, but that site no longer exists). But Marco plans to rob Bill and take off in his truck. That is until he comes across a shed with a woman locked inside, who begs for his help. When he goes back to the cabin to look for the keys to the shed, Bill has woken up, and tells him a story about the woman actually being a demon. So Marco has to decide who to believe, Bill or the woman. And I guess that's all I want to say about the plot.

It's not really a scary horror story, but it's certainly unsettling. And it's a well-made film, which I'm sure objectively deserves to have a higher rating than I've given it. I don't know why I couldn't manage to care about it more than I did. But I'm glad I watched it for a second time.