Buzzkill
2023 · 5m
Directed by Peter Ahern
Genres: animation, comedy, dark comedy
Tones: absurdist, darkly comic, humorous
Tune in to the blind date woes of Rick and Becky — an animated date from hell that is definitely not for the faint-hearted.
Picked by Felix
The scouts
A 5-minute animated date-from-hell that doesn't apologize for its bite—this is the kind of premise that makes you genuinely unsure what you're about to witness, and that uncertainty is the whole point. Buzzkill swings for transgression in a format most people use for sentiment, which is exactly the contrarian move that lands.
While the premise trades in crude provocation, the real question is whether the execution demonstrates the formal control to justify its irreverence; a short working in animation's lineage of surrealism and social satire would need precision in pacing and visual language to earn its cruelty.
The animation style and tonal commitment matter here—there's likely a specific directorial choice in how the discomfort is staged, whether through timing, color palette, or sound design, that separates willful shock from something that actually lands as dark comedy.
Reviews
Das, was Peter Ahern uns im animierten Kurzfilm „Buzzkill“ zeigt, ist definitiv nichts für Zartbesaitete. Oder Minderjährige.