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★★★★
Directed by: #SamBlakeneyEdwards
Written by: #JavedMalik
Starring: #OliverRednall
Cerebral thriller Do No Harm is an atmospheric and emotionally supercharged short film. Written by Javed Malik and directed by Sam Blakeney-Edwards, the story of a junior doctor having the most intense night of his life is filled with dramatic crises, tension, and surrealism.
Oliver Rednall plays Dr Bloom, whose night shift at the hospital takes a turn for the tragic when he loses a patient. His first one and the impact is obviously devastating. He tries to gather his parts and continue his job but this becomes increasingly difficult when the toll of the earlier death is not yet fully fathomable.
Combining cinematic elements from numerous genres, Blakeney-Edwards pumps 50cc’s of pure adrenaline into this short movie simply by utilising #horror and #thriller based tropes in a drama storyline. The use of intense framing, sharp editing, shocking sound design and more keep the audience glued to the film like gauze on a wound you can’t stop staring at. Throw into the mix Rednall’s convincing and intense portrayal of the overworked junior doctor and you have some remarkable filmmaking.
It was fantastic to see the surrealist elements creep into Do No Harm, elevating it from a hospital drama into something more substantial and daring. This also allowed the thematic depth of the piece to become more profound. Dr Bloom’s experiences are indicative of a frontline emergency staff that are asked to carry enormous burdens whilst undergoing numerous cuts to their funding and a lack of support from their government. The human toll of this reckless uncaring for professionals whose job it is to keep people alive becomes the spectre in the corner (or in this case, the spectre behind the ward curtain).
There are aspect to Do No Harm which could be improved. Some of the supporting cast were a little wooden and the dialogue was fairly concentrated on coming across as authentically medical that it lost some of the edge being created by the rest of the mise en scéne. That being said, the #filmmakers use there visuals well to showcase an array of compelling sequences that are strung together by Bloom’s disconnected sense of self. This tapestry of nightmarish experience is the most impressive part of the short film.
Strong and capable #filmmaking from a talented crew with a particularly awe-inspiring central performance from Rednall, Do No Harm is the medical drama we all need to see to break the unstirred disregard that has become commonplace for life-savers.
Find out more about the production company behind Do No Harm here - https://www.crunchy-tomatoes.com
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