Terrible Things
A thick chemical smog hangs over the hills and the denuded trees, a lone figure in hazmat suit and gasmask making their way under the thundery skies and across the rancid fields, destination unknown but moving forwards, away from the horror which lies behind.
There is a makeshift grave, a marker of for a memory vanished when the person who raised it also died, their body lying in a nearby farmhouse, by the decayed corpse a faded photograph of better times and a letter of apology, for the failures of the past which led to this present and killed the future.
A short film of Terrible Things written and directed by Ciarán Hickey, Claire J Loy is the unnamed wanderer in this barren wasteland, the ghosts of the past so far removed that they might as well be ancient history save for the fact that she is living in the aftermath herself, perhaps the sole survivor.
Once a mother herself, she talks to the desiccated corpse, perhaps the only shape she has seen in ages which resembles human form, needing that connection with even a kindred departed spirit to remain sane, a chance for confession and to try to make sense of what is happening.
The atmosphere as brooding and unforgiving as the choking fumes outside, she is alone but for this moment of respite that is better than facing what is outside, one woman with a hatchet against the end of the world, accepting circumstances for what they are but quietly resigned to her suffering rather than bitter.
A burned world of no answers and no way out and certainly no place to raise a child, there are echoes and shapes which recall The Mist and Monsters, humanity ultimately small and ephemeral against the strange forces of a world gone to hell, the very air toxic and the land now belonging to the towering fogwalkers, the manifestation of the Terrible Things which permeate the apocalyptic film.
Terrible Things is available on the Arrow platform now
