The Blue Door (2017) Film Short Review
Multi-award winning and BAFTA-nominated short horror film. A district nurse, played by Gemma Whelan (Game of Thrones, End of the F***ing World) is assigned a new patient living alone in a dilapidated bungalow. The nurse soon discovers that her dying patient and the home she inhabits are hiding a dark secret.
Garry Llewellyn
6 min read
The Blue Door 4.8 /5
It's easy to see why BAFTA opted to nominate it for Best Short.
★★★★
👍 What works
Clever visual storytelling.
Tense and atmospheric direction.
Strong screenplay and performances
👎 What doesn’t
Minimal dialogue may not appeal to everyone.
Short runtime limits character development
Some story details are left open to interpretation
Where to watch on streaming
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. I 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). this, 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 screenplay 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 bedridden woman. Whilst carrying out routine care duties the nurse is surprised, and surprise quickly turns to fear…
The Script.
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 expectations 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 happening 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 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 put a lot of thought into how this particular storyline should be carried out. All of this crafted without a single piece of dialogue.
If psychological tension is your thing, explore more Thriller Film Reviews.
''The creative team found exactly the right lead and Whelan found a new creative outlet to showcase her talent.''
Garry, TheSilverHedgehog.com
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
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 sporadically 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 the 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, it's 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:
4.8 Recommended
The Script / Screenplay
🦔🦔🦔🦔 4
Casting
🦔🦔🦔🦔🦔 5
Music / Score
🦔🦔🦔🦔🦔 5
Video Quality
🦔🦔🦔🦔🦔 5
Visual Effects
🦔🦔🦔🦔🦔 4
Words Garry
Editor JJ
Images The Movie Database
The Letters★★★★★
A film that tells the story go Ireland's heath scandal
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About Garry
I’ve been writing in‑depth reviews since 2020 and I’m a proud supporter of independent cinema. I’m a lifelong Sci‑Fi fan, and I probably spend far too much time photographing anything that catches my eye.
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