Don't Open the Box

Director - Sean Breathnach (Beyond the Woods, The Tower)

Starring - John Ryan Howard (Gateway, The Man with the Hat)

Release Date - 2023

Genre - Horror/Comedy

Format - Streaming (YouTube)

Rating (out of 5):

     I’ve reviewed a lot of terrifying and bone chilling films over the years. Most are feature length while a few are shorts. I have a soft spot for the shorts coming my way from filmmakers, actors, producers, and so on. They are quick to the point and often waste very little of my time. I find it difficult to turn down a film for review but I find it damn near impossible to tell a short no. Sometime back Irish actor and filmmaker John Ryan Howard hit me up to review his short Don’t Open the Box. I tried to review it a lot sooner but work and my home life got the best of my time so I want to apologize to John for taking so long to get this up. 

      The film follows a father who receives a package late one evening. Not knowing who it is from, he opens it unleashing something sinister that traps him and his daughter inside. 

      I knew nothing about Don’t Open the Box aside from the fact that we shouldn’t be opening the box. However, at just a few minutes long I knew I would be seeing everything the short had to offer in just three minutes. The short was enjoyable for the few minutes that it runs but it doesn’t really offer enough substance when compared to other shorts like it. Don’t take this the wrong way because I did enjoy it but the story was just a little thin even for three minutes. The acting in this one works for the short. The cast is extremely small, consisting of two people, but the cast makes it work. We don’t get the typical dialogue set up and creation of personalities due to the short run time but they deliver solid enough performances to make the film work. The story for this one is decent for a short but the extreme short run time does work against it. If the movie was stretched to 15 minutes or half an hour we would have a lot more to enjoy. It works for what it is but I have so many questions that are not answered. Finally, the film has some visual effects that impressed me for a no budget short but if you are looking for a bit of the red stuff then you will be very disappointed. Overall, Don’t Open the Box could be a bit more suspenseful or story driven but it is a decent enough watch as it is. No film is perfect and this one shows that but it does entertain which is all we can ask for. Check it out.