tek's rating: ¾

It Gets Darker (21:27)
IMDb; Last Floor Productions; YouTube

This 2022 short film was presented by Alter in 2023.

The film is Lebanese, and in Arabic with English subtitles. A young woman named Lara is invited out by her friend Vanessa, to go to their friend George's isolated resort. Lara is reluctant to go, but finally agrees. Soon after arriving, she finds out that there's a fourth member of their little get-together: Amir, who had done something traumatic to Lara recently. (I assume he raped her; though that's never stated explicitly, it's hard to imagine it was anything else.) Lara has been planning to tell the police, but Vanessa wants her to listen to Amir's side of the story, to dissuade her from telling anyone what happened. It turns out that Amir, Vanessa, and George are willing to kill Lara to keep her silent, so she must fight for her life.

I feel like I've given away more of the plot than I'm entirely comfortable spoiling, but I also don't think I could have left any of it out. I won't say how it ends (except that it's on a darkly comedic note). But it's a chilling film, particularly because of how realistic it is. Not just the killing aspects, but the fact that everyone, including the victim's friends, often take the side of the person who assaulted them.


horror shorts index