In a women’s shelter, 7-year-old Lynn leaves her mother after a tantrum, and wanders the corridors, coming face to face with the residents’ nightmares.

No matter how old you are, when the lights are off, the monsters come out. In this short film, written and directed by Tomás Ferreira, even with the lights on, we encounter scary things that we can’t control or escape from. The story follows Lynn, a young girl struggling to understand her mother’s choices due to hurt and hate, wanting to know more but her mother is forcing her not to pry. Lynn, like so many children escaping awful situations, is living a nightmare, but may not realise it due to her guardian’s protection. She’s curious, longing for family and to go home. Played by Honor Davis-Pye, her reactions and expressions were wonderful, making the audience feel tense and worried for her as she moved from room to room.

Running alongside in cool tones is the mother’s story. She wants to give her daughter family and contemplates calling her husband in order to do this. But he’s the reason that they’re in this mess in the first place. Played by Moa Myerson, the character of Alice probably goes through the biggest transformation in the story, from mother trying to hold it together for her child, to a person accepting what she’s been through and knowing she is enough. The creatives reference films like The Shining in the art direction through her individual scenes, comparing the moments to what Lynn is seeing, but we know these are real. Or do we?

The sound design in this short is really clever. We hear lots, but we’re often never quite sure what is being done or said, allowing our minds, along with Lynn’s, to wonder. Partnering that with a soundtrack that is sprinkled with 80/90s horror elements, it’s like we’re entering a Lynchian-style world. Ferreira uses tropes and inspirations to welcome us to a new place in a familiar way, but constantly keeps us guessing what might happen next. Set on Halloween night, this idea continues, leaving us to find what’s real between the costumes, the scars of life and what our brain tricks us into thinking when we’re alone.

It feels like every care has been thought about and delivered by this team, from the topics to the execution, working with a young person and the fears we all have. With lights pulsating between neon pinks and dark reds from the beginning, we’re never quite sure what the characters are experiencing before bedtime, but if this film does one thing, it’s highlight that as children, the bed of the people we find safety in are the best places to be.

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