30 Second Horror Short Review: The Devil's Toy (2010)

30 Second Horror Short Review:  The Devil's Toy (2010)

Just watched a really fun short film called THE DEVIL'S TOY.  It's a short 8min 4sec film directed, produced, and edited by Alex Lugones and written by Chris Keaton.  The film is about two young boys (played by Liam Makrogiannis and Alex Marshall) who's curiosity about a jack-in-the-box toy gets the better of them.  The toy was taken from a Nazi concentration camp by one of the boys' grandfathers (Joe Capozzi).  Although short in run time, THE DEVIL'S TOY packs a lot into it's eight minutes.  We learn about the history of the jack-in-the-box from flashbacks and even get a taste of it's power.  There's Nazi occultism and even a shoot out with one of that Nazi Satanists (played by Joe Lang).  In the flashback when the grandfather discovers the toy, he walks into a room and the toy is sitting on the floor in the middle of a huge pentagram.  With the lighting, shadows, and atmosphere Lugones creates here I couldn't help but think of The Lament Configuration (the puzzle box) from the HELLRAISER films.  Lugones does a really nice job setting up shots and creates a whole lot of suspense and atmosphere with his use of shadows and lighting (Robert Ansbro did the cinematography).
I can't go into too much more about the story without giving away the "punchline" but Lugones proves, once again, that you don't need a fat budget, a-list actors, and big explosions to make a really creepy and atmospheric short.  I also got the feeling that this short might be a kind of extended teaser trailer for a longer feature.  Well Lugones definitely piqued my curiosity and I'd love to see this short be extended to a longer feature.

My Summary:
Director:  Alex Lugones (and producer and editor)
Plot:  4 out of 5 stars
Gore:  0 out of 10 skulls
Zombie Mayhem:  0 out of 5 brains
Reviewed by Scott Shoyer