Follow us on Twitter | Instagram
Artist Clara is preparing to perform in a packed theater, but just seconds before the show is about to start, she begins to hear strange sounds. While her mother frantically knocks on the door of her dressing room, Clara battles dark demons within. Will she make it to the stage before the curtains rise?
Directed and written by Jano Pita, the 2023 short horror film Apotemnofilia stars Lucía Azcoitía as protagonist Clara, who struggles with body dysmorphia after giving birth. Only nine minutes long, the movie opens with an unsettling scene of Clara putting in a contact lens. The moment is disturbing because, knowing it is a horror movie, a woman jabbing at her eye could easily turn bloody and gory. And while she does not stab herself, the violence begins soon enough.
Apotemnofilia is a frantic film, with tension heightened by the fact that Clara is supposed to be performing for a packed audience but refuses to leave the dressing room. Amid frantic knocks and constant pleas to open the door, Clara is trapped in her own twisted reality. If you are not a fan of body horror, you will find Clara’s ordeal difficult to endure.
While the runtime is too brief to deeply explore any particular theme, the film still manages to convey the struggles of first-time mothers and the terrifying changes that come with motherhood. As an artist, Clara is expected to immediately bounce back to a glamorous life, performing on stage with little time to adjust to her new reality. Though predictable, and violently exaggerated, Apotemnofilia disturbingly captures the paranoia, anxiety, and fears of new mothers.
Rating: 3 on 5. Watch the film on YouTube.
Read Next: Summer of the Monsters Review: Easy Horror Read, but It Spoils Itself Too Soon
Also Read: The Death of Ivan Ilyich: Book Review (audio version below)