By Mark Hockley
It’s not easy to grab a viewer’s attention with only five minutes runtime, but Whitch manages it. Featuring an arresting performance by Rosemary Hochschild and nicely directed by Hoku Uchiyama, this tale of witchcraft in surburbia is well worth checking out.
The synopsis reads: after putting her daughter to bed, Aura discovers an intruder in her house, an elderly lady who acts strangely familiar and is hell-bent on performing a bloody ritual before midnight.
Initially staged as a horror story, it becomes wryly amusing by the end. Even so, there are some disconcerting moments in the first few minutes that immediately got my interest.
Overall, I was entertained and left satisfied by this darkly comic short. It is obvious writer/director Uchiyama has a good eye and his sensibilities, based on this small sample, are fun and inventive.
Whitch is a fine example of what a horror short should aspire to be. A memorable calling card.
Whitch screens as part of SXSW Film Festival 2025.
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