Snarl Review
Snarl is a 2019 short horror film directed by L.J. ‘Stark’ Greenwood.
Snarl is a film that for some reason just never really grabbed me fully. It is one of those things that is hard to put my hands on as to what kept me from really diving into it but I just didn’t feel connected to it all that much.
I think the first noticeable thing for me as the film began was the hard color tones that drenched the frame to create what I can only surmise was a day for night coloration. The blue just felt pushed too hard, to a point where at least from my monitor it almost hurt my eyes. The lighting film tint was much better in the chamber room, with a more naturalistic approach taken to everything.
Looking at the acting of the piece I’d say no one here does a bad job but the two major standouts for me were Elijah as portrayed by Jay Podmore and Clyde as portrayed by Troy Dennison. The writing was solid too, harkening in to the time period well, although it still felt a little undefined at times too. I think adding some time period text with the opening shot would have helped to transport us a little better as the audience from the start. Besides the gun drawn from Clyde, to me it is hard to pinpoint to England in 1934, but that could also be attributed by my own lack of forward historical knowledge of that time period too.
The score by Hans Michael Anselmo Hess is bombastic and well produced. I think it carries a lot of emotional heavy lifting throughout and adds to the scenes where it is featured. My only gripe would come with the sound mixing itself which doesn’t do the score as much justice as it should have in the piece. In one scene in particular towards the end I had to outright take my headphones off because the creature noises were so screeching with the score too that it just became a little too much for me.
Where the film shines the most is in the transformation and creature effects on display. The look is solid and the way the special effects are handled are practical with good bloody flourishes which I always appreciate.
In the end Snarl is a solid short film to dive into if you are a fan of creature driven horror, or classic monster stories. However, for me there just seemed to be something missing from creating the full recipe here so to speak. Just a few of the technical shortcomings hold it back from being a more well-rounded short film. I still by no means had a bad time here at all and can appreciate all the work that this team put into the film.
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Cheers!
Daniel Hess
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