Amphibian
2023 · 14m
Directed by Sydnee Ackiss
A cranky father and his daughter's anxious boyfriend go frog-gigging in the woods and come face to face with a terrifying creature.
Picked by Zoe
The scouts
A frog-gigging trip that turns into creature-feature horror sounds like a Blumhouse pitch, but Ackiss leans into the dysfunctional father-boyfriend dynamic with enough weird tension that the monster almost feels secondary—almost.
The film engages a familiar Americana horror lineage (backwoods dread, masculine anxiety) but lacks the formal precision or visual argument that would distinguish it from the tradition it's imitating.
Ackiss finds her film's spine in the suffocating small-talk between two men who despise each other before anything supernatural arrives—that social friction is what makes the creature reveal land with actual weight.
Festivals
- Spooktacular Film Fest for Horror & Sci-Fi, Official Selection