Slash FF review: Stomach Bug (2024)
Slash Film Festival
Fantastic Shorts Competition
“It’s just a stomach bug“, the doctor reassures a man whose belly has begun to swell and throb with pain. At home, his nest has just been emptied: his daughter has moved out to live on her own and no longer needs her father’s constant presence. Despite his repeated calls, she does not pick up the phone. Meanwhile, the “bug” inside him grows larger and larger, forcing him back to the hospital for further help.
Stomach Bug, directed by British-Filipino filmmaker Matty Crawford, premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2024. Since then, it has travelled the world, collecting awards at SXSW Film Festival, the San Francisco International Film Festival and the Neuchâtel International Fantastic Film Festival. Eventually, it arrived in Vienna for the Slash Film Festival as a part of the Fantastic Short Competition.
Bathed in dark-green hues, the film confidently straddles the line between body horror and family drama. With minimal dialogue, Crawford crafts a sharp allegory for the all-too-familiar Empty Nest Syndrome. That is, when parents, having devoted years to raising their children, suddenly find themselves alone once their fledglings fly away. The main character, whose name the viewers never learn, embodies this ache. Thus, confronted with his own loneliness, he literally incubates a “bug” that is supposed to fill the void left behind.
Crawford keeps his viewers in suspense, not spelling out what exactly is happening or how the body horror elements will evolve. When the daughter finally answers the phone to explain herself, she seems, just like the audience, left in the dark. Snappily shot suspended-time sequences do not provide resolution; instead, they take viewers on a rollercoaster of pacing, alternating between dynamic bursts and stretches of suffocating stillness. And when it all suddenly erupts, it lands as an anticlimax – leaving behind a sense of unsettled confusion that feels unpleasant, but also strangely satisfying.
Original title: Stomach Bug
Runtime: 15’
Country: United Kingdom
Language: English
Year: 2024
Written|Directed by: Matty Crawford
Producer: Karima Sammout-Kanellopoulou
Production Design: Sehar Kidwai
Cinematographer: Andri Haraldsson
Editor: Yu-Pu Pon
Composer: Oliver Mapp
With: Leslie Ching, Prasanna Sellathurai, Alice Thoma
Production Managers: Ellie Lomas, Dario Bocchini
