Grima

A short horror film written and directed by Richie Harrington and starring Monroe Cline and Lynn Allinger.

Regarding the title, just explaining that ''Grima'' has a variety of meanings and one of them is a feeling of disgust that is related to the sound of nails scratching a chalkboard, which is probably the most appropriate one considering the events in the story.

Sinister things are taking place inside a classroom. All the students are sitting at their desks, completely still, with their heads down. Their teacher (Allinger) is walking around, inspecting them very closely, making sure they are all obeying. One of them, Jen (Cline), is not and the teacher (Finster is her name) confronts her and viciously makes sure that the unruly girl learns her lesson by applying her nails to the blackboard and making ugly noises.

Five minutes of tension and spooky moments and nails scratching a chalkboard. This is a wickedly fun film, whose main strength is arguably Allinger's character, a teacher from hell. The screenplay loses no time becoming gripping, turning towars the supernatural and bringing the viewer in an environment filled with dread, with Brendan F. Cochran's ominous music and Larry Tang's cinematography fitting in just fine. The sound effects are another plus, especially when it comes to nails being pressured against a blackboard. A lot of creativity is clearly present in the special effects, creating grotesque moments like a face disintegrating and the skin being removed from a hand.

Any negative observations? That would be hard. This is a very well-made short with plenty of scares.

As mentioned, Finster is a major asset and this is because it is this character that creates most of the elements that make this film a horror story. Played brilliantly by Allinger, Finster is like Cruella de Vil, a wicked and terrifying person, who might even be a witch. Cline portrays the poor schoolgirl who falls victim to Finster's attention, being emotionally tormented for failing to learn discipline.

The director states that this project acknowledges the awful sound of nails on chalkboard, something that greatly annoys him and there is plenty of that happening in this story. Blackboards and nails aside, punishment, fear, cruelty, guilt and honesty are other themes that drive this story.

A horror film with a nightmarish teacher and the dreaded sound of combining nails with chalkboards. According to Harrington, this short is a proof of concept for a feature film and that is something to look forward to.