Nosepicker
Children can be cruel, picking up on any flaw or deviation, any quirk that marks someone out as different, magnifying it, focusing on it to the exclusion of all else so that it becomes the sole thing which defines a person, eight-year old Georgie Freeman being picked upon by his peers because he repeatedly picks his nose in class, most particularly Cressida at the next desk.
Sent to the school counsellor by his teacher, Miss Barun, neither she nor Mister Hopkins can get Georgie to talk about what has caused his “obsessive nasal fixation,” nor can his anxious parents Sarah and Danny understand his behaviour, concerned that there is something wrong with their son who is now collecting congealed mucus.
A short comedy horror written and directed by Ian Mantgani with Leo Adoteye as Georgie alongside Bridgette Amofah and Simon Bubb as Sarah and Danny with Abi Corbett and Mark Garfield representing the authority of the school system, Nosepicker deals with the hard issues with soft tissues, lessons about good hygiene, ecosystems and the food chain.
Slightly overlong at sixteen minutes for what it has to offer, Nosepicker is still entertainingly well-made, particularly as the mucilaginous mass goes about the neighbourhood committing murder, perhaps independently, perhaps subconsciously guided by the bullied Georgie, a glowing green agent of revenge creeping through the streets and up drainpipes.
Nosepicker will be available on the the Arrow platform from Friday 13th September
