Pappy's World (2018) - Friends Till The End?

Pappy’s World is a 2018 horror short film written and directed by Matt Wisniewski, co-written by Fred Polone and Matt Wisniewski and starring Fred Polone and Jaz Frazier.

The description from IMDB reads simply as follows: “A girl in post-racial America gets a killer doll for Christmas.”

Plot, Thoughts & Recommendation

There’s quite a bit going on in the short nine minute run time of Pappy’s World. Based on my tagline to this review you might have guessed that the film revolved around a doll. You may also gather from the title of the film itself and the inclusion of ‘Pappy’ that you might be seeing what the film makers describe as a, “Socially responsible Blaxpoitation”.

What you wouldn’t gather from either title is just how nice and tight and remarkably bizarre this is.

I’m not even really quite sure how to give this film a proper review but that’s definitely not a bad thing. I’ve watched it a few times now an every time I come back to it I’m picking up something new. Even though it’s got a short run time there’s a ton of BIG topics covered here including PTSD, race and sexuality. I’ve struggled how to describe this accurately and I’ve come up with this:

Throw Team America: World Police, Shaft and Metallica’s video for One into a blender and sprinkle liberally with Child’s Play and Toy Story overtones.

If that’s confusing, then I’ve done my job as a reviewer. I’m not even sure I could give you an accurate “plot summary” so I’m not going to bother trying. I’ll say this. This is a REALLY well put together short that will make you think. It might make you scratch your head while you’re thinking but you’ll be thinking. It is shot really well, even with a lot of dark scenes and there’s clearly been a ton of care into the doll on what was a pretty slim budget.

I wish I could get you a link to the full film cause I’d love to talk to someone else who’s seen it. Until it’s made available I’ll leave you with a little trailer I found and a suggestion to track it down if you can and watch it. Thanks to Matt for access to his film and apologies for the lengthy delay in my review.