Sneha Jaiswal (Twitter | Instagram)

‘I am alone and miserable. Only someone as ugly as I am could love me.’ – The Creature, Frankenstein.

Written and directed by Brooke H. Cellars, the short film ‘Violet Butterfield: Makeup Artist for the Dead’ is like ‘The Good Place’ meets ‘Frankenstein’ at a funeral home. If Violet existed in the same fictional universe as Mary Shelley’s work, the creature would’ve gotten the makeover he craved and found love, at least in death. This isn’t a typical horror film; instead, it’s more of an absurd comedic drama with just the slightest touch of the macabre.

The film follows Violet, a beautician who often receives disfigured bodies at her parlor and turns them into sights one could admire at an open casket funeral. Michelle Malentina plays the sassy titular protagonist who helps the dead attain the beauty they couldn’t achieve in life. Sporting bright blue eye-shadow, long lashes, and a beehive hairstyle backcombed to perfection, Michelle’s Violet looks and talks like she is straight out a 70s classic. Her character is dramatically endearing; she is both talkative yet an empathetic listener and doesn’t care about what sort of catastrophes her customers get themselves into.

The cinematography vividly re-creates a retro backdrop for this amusingly eccentric short film and makes viewers feel like they’ve walked into a time capsule. About 12 minutes long, the story concludes before some viewers can fully grasp the creator’s intentions. However, if you’d just ruminate over it a bit, the message becomes clear enough: don’t wait until you’re dead to start living. “Violet Butterfield: Makeup Artist for the Dead” is a fun short film that ends too soon and has the potential to evolve into a feature-length horror-comedy or even a series.

You can watch the film on YouTube, it’s also embedded below.