The Shedding
The Shedding is a new short Horror film from the creative minds of Will Dupere and Lakkaya Palmer, with an Executive Producer credit for Zoe-Rose Smith, known fondly as The Queen of Extreme amongst the UK Horror scene.
Dupere and Palmer had the following to say about their film The Shedding (2024):
"The Shedding is an independent horror and psychological thriller, created primarily by students (from the script, aesthetics, to the set and soundtrack)-made on a low budget that was fundraised. The film is a love letter to 1980s horror...but we aimed to bring in a modern lens with the incorporation of race and gender"
While watching Dupere and Palmer's The Shedding (2024) it was evident that this was a project made with passion by people who have a deep and rich love for Horror and film. From the long shots that help to create a sense of place, to the framing of characters in the foreground while the background is the centre of the viewer's attention. The passion for Horror and film extends beyond the cinematography to the score and the practical effects, both which help to ensure that this film while only having a run time just shy of 13 minutes, is a captivating and memorable piece of film.
William Dupere is not only the Director and Co-Writer of this project, he is also responsible for scoring the film. Throughout the film the music creates a haunting atmosph though what really made it stand out for me was the use of synchroized clapping either ryhtmitcally in harmony with the music, or occasionally in opposition to it. While watching this film, every time the discordant combination of music and clapping kicked in, I was reminded of folk horror films from the New Orleans Bayou region, and at times I was also reminded of the fantastic Ganja & Hess (1976) which is another film where the music/score is an equally powerful storytelling device.
Any discussion of The Shedding (2024) would be a failed one if it did not focus on the amazing practical effects by Rebecca Thomas-Punter. Though before I can fully describe the power of those effects, I first need to touch on what those effects represent narratively.
This film is taking place in some form of school or educational environment, and starts off following the protagonist portrayed magnificently by Jasmine Rachelle sorting through their classroom. The camera follows them to an interaction with a work colleague, and even though there is no dialogue we can tell that our protagonist has been ignored and dismissed. I am hesitant to say explicitly that the protagonist is a woman, but they are a character wearing typically feminine clothing with a hairstyle that would also be deemed to be feminine, so I feel that the interaction with the other character who would appear to be coded as masculine, is a very deliberate commentary on gendered social interactions. The dismissal of our protagonist is the catalyst for the rest of this film.
The protagonist of The Shedding (2024) makes their way back to the classroom and this is when the music goes silent and the first character vocalisation happens as they let out a loud wail, a crying out that to me is representative of all women, particularly women of Colour, and Queer folks who have had enough with the patriarchal structures that dismiss us. The rest of this short film is a terrific collection of Horror motifs with the filmmakers showcasing their knowledge and love of the genre. There is one shot which I truly adored, the camera is static and focused on the dimly lit hallway as our protagonist slowly walks toward the camera. To me this shot evokes the rage of those continously dismissed by a patriarchal society, a rage that is unrelenting and will not be held back.
The final moments of the film is when Thomas-Punter's effects work gets to be enjoyed by the viewer. The protagonist notices a cut on their finger and what to my brain was a form of hang-nail protruding from the cut. The protagonist starts pulling at it and this starts to unravel their skin. The combination of gooey practical make-up evocative of the goriest 80s Horror, and the sound design of flesh tearing makes for an uncomfortable to watch body horror sequence. Though there is something enticing about the grossness of what you are witnessing, and you find yourself unable to look away. The film ends with our protagonist fully shedding their skin and killing the character from earlier who had dismissed them. This to me, is the film using visual imagery that is focused on the body to represent the radical act of tossing aside the mask one has been forced to build by a patriarchal and white supremacist society and by virtue of this act helping to build the structures for an anti-racist and feminist society. The body is and always has been political, and The Shedding (2024) reminds us of that fact.
Whether my own interpretations of this film are correct is not the point of this review. The main takeaway for you my dear reader is to be excited about the future of transgressive filmmaking and with filmmakers like William Dupere and Lakkaya Palmer out there, that future is a bright one indeed.
If you would like to keep up with all things The Shedding (2024) you can head to the film project LinkTree here: https://linktr.ee/thesheddingfilm