The Hand That Feeds

Horror is not an easy genre in this competition, and Obself did their best to create tension and were quite successful on the "finger scene". Nice editing and blood effects at points. Overall, it was somewhat cheesy but lacked the tension to deliver on some of the visual imagery. The chase scene and confrontation with the stranger was quite anti-climactic, but the ending helped reclaim a bit of ground.

Very impressive sound design indeed, and a creepy as hell sound track had the audience genuinely squirming in their seats which is everything you'd want from a horror film that bravely played it straight and did not go for laughs. Reliance on mood and tension had my attention as a cursed loaf of bread caused our lead actress some high levels of grief whilst she tried to keep her daily life in order. The main things letting the film down were a lack of a polish from a cinematography point of view, and the curse afflicting hobo was a bit off in his performance tone. However I was able to overlook that and found that your strong lead actress and disturbing nightmarish soundtrack really knocked me over. Well done.

Creepy! Great shock introduction with the loose fingernail. I got the idea that the loop of bad fortune needed to be broken, but I can't decide what was the turning point that made the lead character's fate clear. Thumbs up for the gore/horror factor and great soundtrack.

Love the sound design. I found that there were a few shots that lingered a little too long (or not needed). But, I like the tension at the end, and this film made me squirm with the finger cutting scene.

Had a genuine horror feel to it, even if it was a bit heavy-handed and technically a little clunky (although, not that bad for a 48 hour film). Well done making a horrifying horror. Good committed performances from the actors. There have been few really successful, horror films that aren't comedies in the competition, so good on you guys for having a good stab at it. Nearly a really good film.

Horror is not the same thing as torture porn. Granted, this never went to the heights of Saw or similar in that regard, but it certainly felt to be at that level simply because the gore was unmerited, unwarranted and unjustified by the story. I think I got that there was somehow cursed bread that passed something-or-other else on that makes you... become like an American diner waitress who spits in the food of a rude customer that doesn't tip..? I may have to re-watch, but on first impression it certainly felt like there was a complete lack of cogent explanation for either the cursed bread or the dastardly motivations behind the evil hobo. Even given that such explanations exist upon closer inspection, I don't want to care more about the side-character's impending wedding than whether the main chick cuts her finger off after failing to realise we have knives for bread already -- they're called bread knives, helpfully, and they are serrated. I know horror is especially difficult to pull off. It's like comedy, either the audience reacts viscerally or they don't. It has its own set conventions of genre developed over the last ninety plus years, and they must be either adhered to or subverted. Isolation, Final Girl, the House, and the Monster (physical or otherwise), to name a few. Conventions are important to horror perhaps more than any other genre because they work together to ramp up the tension as the audience is familiar with the narrative already and this gives them a sense of anticipation. Gore is the icing on the horror cake, tension+release generated by the conventions being the cake itself. You can't have icing without a cake, because if you do you'll get diabetes. Which has nothing to do with cinema, granted, but... alright back on track. You don't want to do a horror without knowing the conventions inside out. This short film lacked a Final Girl (the hobo, maybe?), proper Isolation, only used the House as a means to having a viable setting, and the Monster (definitely the evil hobo) lacked any real menace.