Short Film Review: The Madame In Black (2017)
In Elizabeth Tucker’s book about Children’s Folklore, there is an essay by Bengt Klintberg called “Black Madame, Come Out!” (1988) which recalls a 10-year-old Swedish girl’s description of Black Madame (or Svarta Madam), in which she stood in front of a mirror and said: “I don’t believe in you, Black Madame” 12 times. She described Black Madame as having green hair, red teeth, and luminous yellow eyes and that she, herself, is black. There seem to be a few different ways to summon this spirit, all with horrifying consequences, and it is said that sudden death can be the worst-case scenario she is commonly associated with upon summoning her.
Written and directed by Jarno Lee Vinsencius, and from JLV Pictures, The Madame in Black (Svarta Madam) is an exceptional short horror film based on this Swedish children’s folklore. It’s really hard to tell a story in a short amount of time, but this film does it very well, and while clocking in at only 24 minutes, it seems more like a full-length film because of how well it’s written. This is definitely some of the best use of time for a short horror film we have seen yet.
It starts off with a young brother and sister (Alex and Emma) who are home alone, and Emma teases Alex about being too scared to play “The Madame in Black”. He eventually gives in and they go down into the basement where their grandmother’s mirror is being stored. The children look into the mirror, call her name three times and tell her to come out. The story then picks up 22 years later, and Alex and Emma are at Emma’s birthday party. Alex has their grandmother’s mirror and gives it to Emma as a gift. Emma reminds Alex about The Madame in Black, which Alex tries to dismiss as not remembering, but had nightmares for years after playing the game with his sister as a child. He decides to confront his fear, and play it again, which was a terrible mistake that they would all regret that night.
One of the first things you will notice about this film is the fantastic cinematography, sound, and lighting. This is something that a lot of indie short films will miss the mark on, but Vinsencius has a lot of experience, also does the cinematography in this film, and seemed to have a very clear vision for each scene and really nailed it. Erik Hoff definitely deserves some credit in the sound department as well for helping to compliment the cinematography with very eerie music and ambient sound at the right moments. There are a lot of really great camera shots as well, and the use of fog and some fantastic shots of the full moon added to the already creepy atmosphere that leaves you on the edge of your seat. Really great production work all around. The acting in this film was also great. Demis Tzivis (Alex) and Ida Gyllensten (Emma) have a lot of prior acting experience which shines here and all of these factors combined really make this film feel like it was done by a much bigger studio.
The Madame in Black is some of the best work we have seen in indie horror, and even better than some full-length films from much larger studios. We absolutely hope to see more from Vinsencius and team soon and would love to see some full-length horror come from his production company. He definitely has a firm grasp on what a horror film should look and feel like, and if this is any indication of what he is capable of, we would definitely be excited to see more. Needless to say, if we were to rate this in our normal fashion, it would absolutely be 5/5, and every horror fan should definitely see this.
Official Website: http://www.themadameinblack.com
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Official Twitter: https://twitter.com/madameinblack17
