Short Films

This psychological horror revolves around a successful Caribbean family residing in central London. They are preparing to celebrate and say goodbye to their eldest daughter, Onika, who has just secured a new job as a trainee junior costume designer for a major Film studio abroad. After a memorable gathering with family and friends, filled with heartfelt farewells, well wishes, and celebration. Only the family remains, relaxing and chatting after a joyful party. They're also waiting for Uncle AJ to grab his plate before heading off to his night shift. With some of Mama's celebration cake still left, Onika begins slicing and serving it to everyone when there's a knock at the door. Expecting her uncle AJ and caught up in a lively, humorous family conversation, Onika opens the door without checking through the peephole. To her surprise, she finds a masked man dressed in black, wearing black gloves, and holding a gun. Beside him lies a gym-style bag adorned with cryptic symbol stitching. Onika, taken aback, stands frozen in shock at the sight. An intense fight for survival ensues, resulting in the family eventually overpowering the masked intruder together, using brute force, narrowly escaping a deadly home invasion. The story then shifts back in time to the moment Onika and her family are all sitting down at the dining room table, just before the cake is about to be served. With the same previous conversation replaying, only this time, the conversation seems more cautious somber, and unsettling than the tone of the conversation had previously. Disturbing flashes of injury wounds begin to appear in glitch form on and off of the family members' faces, arms, and hands. A tethered wave of reality and fantasy soon begin to unpeel as the true events of the home invasion are revealed that ended in a ritualistic killing of the family, with Onika being the only family member to have survived the harrowing and inconceivable night. The story ends with Onkia, sitting in the dark, alone around the dining table, with a dazed, vacant look in her eyes and her body still. Tears flow from her eyes like a waterfall. Four plates were placed on the table where her family sat and a cake was placed in the centre. After a prolonged pause, the door knocks. This slightly startles Onika, yet she refuses to move. Concerned voices from Onika's relatives can be heard from outside the front door, pleading with her to open the door and not isolate herself in her torment. Onika looks up towards the front door, contemplating in mental agony whether or not to answer open the door and let her family in. Onika apprehensively begins to walk towards the door, only reaching as far as the dining room entryway before stopping herself. She looks back at the cold, dark, empty dining room and then at the empty table. She then turns her head back towards the front door. The voices of her relatives and the knocks on the door continue to be heard, making Onkia feel more conflicted. Onika takes three slow steps towards the direction of the front door, when suddenly, the same reggae song heard playing on the night of the murders, begins to play from the dining room, followed by the voices of her family laughing and enjoying light conversation. Succumb to the almost hypnotic music and drawn to hearing her family, Onika turns her body back towards the dining room. As she does so, the dining room lights suddenly turn on. As Onika begins walking back to take her place back at the table, the family, in living form begin to manifest in front of Onika's eyes. Onika's tormented expression rapidly shifts into pure bliss. We are left with the visual of Onika's interpretation of experiencing a brief stint of Grief Psychosis brought on by the unimaginable trauma she has experienced. From the view of reality, we see Onika alone, still in that dark and empty room, stuck in a psychological loop, reenacting the moments before she lost her family in a desperate attempt to erase the worst moment of her life.