Good Mourning
2020 · 9m
Directed by Daniel Rashid
Genres: comedy, dark comedy, family
Tones: absurdist, darkly comic, whimsical
Piper, her late grandfather's pet, takes charge of his farewell funeral, until a fuzzy intruder turns the proceedings delightfully sideways.
Picked by Zoe
The scouts
A pet-run funeral could've been toothless whimsy, but Rashid commits to the bit with genuine absurdist conviction—there's a refusal to wink at the audience that actually makes the fuzzy intruder premise land.
The film demonstrates assured tonal control, balancing dark comedy against familial warmth with the kind of restraint that suggests Rashid understands both the tradition of British comedy shorts and where to bend it.
The reveal that a *pet* is orchestrating this funeral ceremony costs nothing and changes everything—it's the kind of single conceptual choice that reframes sentiment as comedy, and Rashid executes it with the confidence of someone who knows exactly why it works.
Reviews
In eight minutes, Good Mourning packs in a nightmare that most can relate to, and before you know it, it is over, but you feel the intensity burning your skin still. In our opinion, that's a film that has succeeded.