A Hiker Must Keep to the Path (or Else) in Horror ShortNarrow

Abackpack - totingwoman trudge through what looks like a sun - baked field of grass , fiddling with a piss bottle that ’s got just a few drops left in it . affair would only seemmildly direif she had n’t also just passed another woman , sprawled in a heap a few foot off the lead , scream in agony for service — and with a steely tone on her face , walked on past . Then we notice the path she ’s stride along is marked with crushed rock and is scantily a foot wide , and we can instantly intuit that she is n’t planning to deviate from it , not for any reason .

But why ? What ’s out there ? Who made the way and where does it lead ? Just enough information is revealed in Narrow , a short filmby author , director , and lead actor Anna Chazelle . Shared byShort of the Week , it unfolds over10 unbelievably tense minutesas we follow the protagonist across a landscape whereone false footstep spells abominable day of reckoning .

After the shrieking woman at the outset , the cruel temptations only ramp up from there — oh , the can of food that the makeshift lasso juuuust wo n’t strain — and presently build into psychological holy terror so awful you may infer why the hiker decides to do what she does . We never get a good luck at whatever ’s tracking her every move — or a sentiency of what it wants , or what sort of apocalyptic event has give it so much power . But as Chazelle tells Short of the Week , that ’s kind of the spot : “ To me , horror clarifies what is really important in our life by discase away the unnecessities . I eff stories with childlike yet imaginative premise that are come near in grounded , unquestionable ways . I especially loved the melodic theme of playing with auditory sensation — I’m always peculiarly impressed by film , especially repugnance , that are n’t afraid of silence . ”

What’s out there?