Imagine
an episode of EastEnders directed by
early-period Wes Craven and you will have an idea of this short’s film’s vibe.
Technically, it is set in Manchester, but the milieu is not radically
dissimilar. As if the conventional crime, poverty, and addiction were not scary
enough, something very sinister might be going on behind the closed doors of
the estate flat Alice is forced to visit in Moin Hussain’s short film Real Gods Require Blood (trailer here), which screens
during the 2017 Frightfest in the UK.
Blame
the local authorities. In 1990, Manchester was about the only spot in England
mired in economic doldrums. Unfortunately, Alice is usually too stoned to
notice the moribund job market. This is like any other morning for her, but
because she is so slow witted, she cannot conjure up an excuse (aside from the
obvious fact she is an irresponsible junkie) when her neighbor strong-arms her
into minding her children: a boy and girl of elementary school age, who certainly
look like they have different fathers.
As
Alice tries to make nice with her charges, she finds herself confused by the
assorted photos and references to their “uncles.” It doesn’t exactly add up for
us the viewers either and we’re sober as judges, or so we’ll assume. There is
obviously something very wrong about their domestic environment, starting with
the fact the TV only seems to pick up torture porn horror movies. The kids
themselves seem nice enough, but as soon as Alice arrives around midday, they
start pressuring her to leave before nightfall. Of course, she does not want to
be there in the first place, but she feels duty-bound to stay until their
mother returns.
Real Gods works rather
insidiously as a chamber-style horror piece, because the socio-economic setting
and the actual genre business reinforce and amplify each other. It is always hard
to tell whether the greater evils are inside or outside the flat. Manchester
crime novelist Tom Benn’s screenplay also obliquely hints at a deeply troubled
backstory that could become a feature in its own right. Anna Berentzen
convincingly portrays the drug-befogged Alice’s gradually mounting but still
rather hazy suspicion that something is profoundly off about the kids and their
situation. Thanks to Mick Cooke’s feverish cinematography, the viewers share
her wooziness and sense of unease.
