I’ve wondered in the past why writers and directors don’t lean on the found footage format for genres other than pure horror more often. Those films exist (Language Lessons, for one), but they’re few and far between. It wasn’t until I watched Spooky Encounters of the Sad Kind that it clicked for me: the mockumentary format of, e.g., The Office basically is comedy found footage. It uses fictional scenes designed to feel like real people were caught on camera, heightening the immersion, but plays them for laughs and pathos rather than scares. Spooky Encounters of the Sad Kind, a delightful horror-comedy short from Swedish filmmaker Jonathan Wilhelmsson, is the best of both worlds. It blends mockumentary and found footage to capture the unease of being cooped up in your apartment with something supernatural, with a cheerful comic spirit running through the whole thing.
The short follows Liz Evans (Karen Olrich-White), a self-proclaimed “mediocre filmmaker” who starts recording when a series of strange phenomena crop up in her apartment. It’s classic ghostly stuff: chills in the air, flickering lights, and, in my favorite shot of the film, kitchen cabinets flapping open and shut of their own volition in a gleeful burst of kitchen chaos.
Before long, Liz meets the source of the haunting: Tim, aka Toast (voiced by Tom Lorcan), a friendly but slightly doleful ghost who is essentially the 👻 emoji come to life. Wilhelmsson clearly put a lot of care into making Toast feel just right. The design is simple and a little uncanny, and the minimalism actually heightens the ghost’s expressiveness. He has just the right amount of heft and transparency to read as a classic, physical ghost rather than a glossy digital creation. That’s because he sort of is physical: as Wilhelmsson walks through in a making-of video, Toast is a practical puppet enhanced with visual effects in post-production. For a self-released short on a small budget, it’s a terrific effect.
The rest of the runtime digs into Toast’s backstory and builds toward the sad and spooky revelation the title promises. That twist pits Toast and Liz against each other and offers a dark mirror to Liz’s loneliness. The second half delivers a few frightening moments, though the film never quite crosses into pure horror territory. It moves quickly through its eleven minutes, holding a steady, whimsical tone shot through with autumnal melancholy and creepiness. That’s no small feat for a film shot over a few summer days in Gothenburg.
Wilhelmsson lists fifteen years of filmmaking experience and at least a dozen films on his website, alongside commercial and editing work, and he leaves a strong impression as the maestro of this short. His control of tone is precise, his script hits its story beats with economy and clarity, and his editing is brisk and sharp. Most impressive, though, is that he handled the entire post-production himself, on his laptop. His behind-the-scenes videos show a resourceful bag of tricks and old-fashioned elbow-grease, like faked rain and objects sent flying with the help of a cheese tray, all carefully composited into the finished shots.
The film looks great, with excellent production design packed into its single apartment setting. Many of the compositions have a Wes Anderson-style symmetry and cleanliness, and Wilhelmsson’s camera keeps things lively with clever movements, focus shifts, and a few well-placed POV shots. He also slips in some old-fashioned, almost magazine-ad-style compositions, including one of Liz and Toast squaring off over a game of chess. I’d love to see Wilhelmsson get his hands on more ambitious narrative material.
Olrich-White is a wonderful lead. She has a charming screen presence and the kind of timing that carries both the comic and dramatic sides of the material, which is especially remarkable for when she has to credibly act opposite a character whose voice is added in post-production. Most of her credits are collaborations with Wilhelmsson, and the two clearly share a sensibility, but this is a very promising performance on its own terms.
There aren’t many better ways to spend Halloween season than with a clever twist on creepy cinema, and Spooky Encounters of the Sad Kind is a fun little story with strong effects and plenty of personality.
Spooky Encounters of the Sad Kind (11 min.) is streaming for free on YouTube.
Spooky Encounters of the Sad Kind is written and directed by Jonathan Wilhelmsson, a filmmaker based in Sweden. You can find his website here.
Crew credits include Jonathan Wilhelmsson for sound recording, design, and mix, Mikael Persson as music editor, and Holly Fraser and James Fraser as script editors. The film was produced by Jonathan Wilhelmsson, Ellen Johansson, and Holly Fraser, with Mattias Ehrenberg as executive producer. The film stars Karen Olrich-White as Liz, with the voice of Tom Lorcan as Toast. The soundtrack is made up of ten tracks licensed from Upright Music, including work by Darby Orr, Thomas Hewitt Jones, and Mauro Polito.
The short took home Best Narrative Short Film (Comedy) at Cinequest.
Dan Stalcup is the film critic for The New Cinephile and The Goods. Reach him at dan.stalcup@gmail.com.