March 29, 2024

Girls Night (2017) – French Horror Short

Girls Night (2)Girls Night (2017) is the latest project by writer and director David Teixeira. It stars Alice Nazare, Liliana Garcia (not Lilian Garcia of WWE fame… I checked) and Marina de Sousa as three girlfriends who stay home on Halloween for a slumber party that goes bloody wrong. Literally. Teixeira’s previous work includes 2007’s Sweet Madness and 2009’s O ruído contínuo

David had this to say about the film:

Girls Night is my last project and my most challenging one. I’m very proud of it even though the technical limitations. It was a very low project and I wrote, directed, filmed and edited the film. Everything you see in there is my pure vision. My inspirations are mainly Wong Kar-Wai for the cinematography, Wes Craven for directing actors and Osgood Perkins for the pacing and ambiance.”

Plot, Thoughts & Recomendation

Three young women are having a sleepover on Halloween and they start talking about urban legends. This leads to the topic of Bloody Mary. Horror fans know this tale well as the one where if you say “Bloody Mary” three times in a mirror she’ll appear behind you and kill you. One of the girls is scared of the story (ironically she’s the one that brought it up) and leaves the room. The other two “do the deed” and speak Bloody Mary’s name three times. Earlier in the film we’re shown a white masked intruder in the home who has been absent until the finale. We’re never told definitively if it’s Mary that shows up or merely a random killer but the results are brutal.

This is a solid little short film. With a running time of just over 13 minutes there’s enough meat here to sink your teeth into and get invested into the character even though it’s a story that horror fans will be familiar with. There’s a boyfriend character that’s hinted at early in the film that is never seen or heard from. Is he the killer or just a loose end? I don’t “think” that’s supposed to be a plot element so I think it could probably have been dropped.

The camera moves well, the sound is tight and the girls don’t look like their acting which I really appreciate. I can’t comment on the specific dialog as it’s all in French subtitled in English. What I can say is the translation makes sense. The killer here has a great look reminiscent of a porcelain doll. Think The Strangers meets Scream. What gore we have here is very well done. It’s not over the top and it just out of focus enough to feel believable. Great effort from David Teixeira and crew… solid recommend.

You can find more about Girls Night at the following links:

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Chewie

I've been a fan of horror and slasher movies for as long as I can remember. I consider the original Halloween to be the best horror movie of all time and my guilty pleasure horror flick would be The Exorcist III. You can find me on Twitter at @406Northlane or TikTok @406Northlane where I'm sure I'll offend you at least once a day.

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