The Blue Door (2017) Film Short Review

Introduction To The Blue Door

Facebook can be an interesting place. Sometimes fascinating people come to your attention, people that would never be amongst your circle in your ordinary life. One such person is Megan Pugh. Garry had a brief conversation with Megan on a Facebook group that led to a chat about BAFTA nominated Short – The Blue Door (that Megan co-wrote). Obviously, it piqued Garry’s interest so together with friend of the website, Chelsea they set out to watch and review The Blue Door

The Blue Door is a 9-minute-long horror short, directed by Paul Taylor with screen play by Ben Clark and Megan Pugh. It made its debut in 2017 and became a Bafta nominated short in 2019.

A private nurse (Gemma Whelan) arrives at a spooky house (when are houses in horror films not spooky?) to look after an elderly bed ridden woman. Whilst carrying out routine care duties the nurse is surprised, and surprise quickly turns to fear…

The Script/Screenplay

Shorts are used by new writers, directors and producers to signal intent and also by major studios to explore creative avenues and talent (at minimal expense). So, enter relatively new writers Ben Clark and Megan Pugh, who together with Director Paul Taylor create The Blue Door.

When done right, shorts can be some of the most thought provoking and engaging pieces of film making. By its very definition a ‘short’ has the extremely difficult job of conveying a concise story with a beginning, middle and end, all within a limited time frame. Therefore, character development and subplots are often omitted. This leaves the viewer to fill in the gaps and make several assumptions about what’s going on within the first few minutes. Some assumptions turn out to be correct, others not so much.

What Clark and Pugh have done is craft a short that uses no words. This forces the viewer to quickly piece together what is going and make those aforementioned assumptions and open up questions in your mind. For example, who last fed the woman? Who left all the dirty dishes for the nurse to clean up? Why is the nurse snooping around the house?

This works on two levels; the first is just your mind making sense of what’s happening on screen. The second is the slow reveal of key clues to what is happening and this is where the genius of Clark and Pugh’s writing comes into play. Interwoven between the nurse’s routine chores are small details, some are obviously revealed (such as a tattoo) and some are hidden in plain sight (walking sticks?)

You know The Blue Door is touted as a horror short, so there is some expectation that something is going to happen, and Clark and Pugh’s playfulness with the clues provide a build-up of tension that increases at a steady rate, never in haste but at exactly the right speed! They have obviously put a lot of thought into how this particular storyline should be carried out. All of this crafted without a single piece of dialogue.

Standout Casting

Gemma Whelan

As with all films the casting of the lead role is pivotal for a project’s success. The creative team have cast Gemma Whelan as the star of the short. Any previous image of Whelan as a comedic actress (she’s genuinely brilliant in upstart crow!) soon disappeared. The lack of spoken word meant that Whelan had to convey all emotion and drama visually. Director Paul Taylor and Whelan found a way to make it work through facial expressions and subtle hand movements. It was executed very well indeed. It seems the creative team found exactly the right lead and Whelan found a new creative outlet to showcase her talent.

Sound/Music/Score

Steve Dunne has provided his talents to the production of The Blue Door. Using the tried and tested Horror music template Dunne starts by introducing incidental music in sporadic way, and gradually increases the tempo a little by little until the end of the short. The use of the tried and tested doesn’t just stay with incidental music, as his use of other sound was spot on! The key in the lock, creaking doors, footsteps; the everyday sounds you hear all the time and never think twice about – that might change. Again, it was beautifully done and really added to the overall atmosphere of the film. Credit also goes to James Matthews who has done a commendable job with his foley work

Video Quality

Benedict Spence brings his expertise to take care of cinematography, a more than crucial job, as literally all eyes will be focused on screen given the lack of dialogue. Spence opted for various camera angles to best convey Whelan’s acting, and shots such as close-ups of her facial expressions helped to enhance the overall mood.

We watched The Blue Door through the YouTube link above, and the picture quality looked good, with great depth between shadows and highlights. It was an easy watch. Opting to bring Spence on board was a great move.

Visual Effects

The major effect (other than suspense) is the sudden appearance of The Blue Door. Its appearance being seamless between shots. An effect that may not be as simple as it appears to implement. Also setting the scene and creating the right environment called for various props which were used sparingly but to great effect. The lack of bright colours contributed to the bleakness felt while watching it, and of course, the colour blue was prominent – as expected.

The Blue Door Overall Thoughts

Watching The Blue Door its easy to see why BAFTA opted to nominate it for Best Short.
On paper its premise is incredibly simple, but its execution is superbly crafted. Long after watching the short, it still makes you think about what it’s trying to say. This is reflected on the long list of YouTube comments discussing ‘the Nurse’.

Whilst it doesn’t seem likely to spawn a longer feature, I look forward to see what the creative team of The Blue Door come up with next.

What would you give?

The Silver Hedgehog Rating: 9.4 'Must Watch'

The Script / Screenplay
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Casting

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Music / Score

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Video Quality

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Video Quality

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Watching The Blue Door it's easy to see why BAFTA opted to nominate it for Best Short. On paper the premise is incredibly simple, but its execution is superbly crafted.

Words Garry
Editor JJ
Images The Movie Database

Review Extras

Directed by Paul Taylor

Writing Credits (in alphabetical order)

Ben ClarkMegan Pugh

Cast

Janie Booth

Annie McGrath

Gemma Whelan

Music by Steve Dunne

Sound Design Ben Carr

Cinematography by Benedict Spence

Film Editing by Dan Mellow

Makeup Department

Ruth Pease … Hair and Makeup Designer

Sound Department

James Matthews … foley editor

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