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“It is hard for me to talk about ’cause I haven’t really gone through this myself.”
The short horror movie ‘Robbie Ain’t Right No More‘ begins with a stark, vivid shot of a shotgun displayed on the wall of a living room. The camera slowly pans to reveal it hanging above a couch where a young girl sits, listening to her father struggle to articulate his thoughts. For a few seconds, you might think the dad is trying to explain something like menstruation, but they’re actually discussing how the girl’s older brother, Robbie, has been behaving strangely ever since he got back home from the war.
Written and directed by Kyle Perritt, ‘Robbie Ain’t Right No More‘ stars Jadon Cal as the titular protagonist, a young man who initially seems to be grappling with PTSD. But as the tense plot unfolds, viewers begin to wonder if he’s brought more than metaphorical ghosts home. Madeleine McGraw plays Robbie’s younger sister, who tries to understand why her brother is acting so eerily strange.
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At about 18 minutes long, ‘Robbie Ain’t Right No More‘ starts slow, with a very awkward family dinner setting the stage for Robbie’s unraveling. The film lives up to its tagline, “home is where you take it,” excellently symbolizing how war scars young individuals and affects their families. Kyle Perritt and his team use subtle ambient sounds to maintain a gloomy mood throughout the short runtime, while leaving plenty of visual cues about what could happen next.
‘Robbie Ain’t Right No More‘ ends with a dark twist that is partly predictable, yet still carries an element of surprise. Overall, it’s a gritty, watch-worthy horror film.
You can watch the film on ALTER’s YouTube channel.
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