Green Eyed
2012 · 15m · Australia
Directed by Nathaniel Lindsay
Genres: dark comedy, fantasy, satire
Tones: absurdist, darkly comic, theatrical
A tongue-in-cheek satire of 1980s yuppie one-upmanship culture featuring a Nosferatic ghoul.
Picked by Felix
The scouts
A Nosferatic creature gatekeeping 80s yuppie status anxiety is exactly the kind of absurdist premise that makes everyone else nervous — and that's precisely why it works. Lindsay leans into the ridiculous collision without winking, which is the opposite of safe satire.
The film sits comfortably in a lineage of theatrical grotesque comedy, though the execution feels more performance-driven than formally rigorous; the tonal control wavers between pastiche and genuine critique in ways that undercut its satirical argument.
The decision to play the ghoul not as a metaphor but as a literal peer-competitor in the yuppie hierarchy—participating in the status game rather than haunting it—is what transforms this from sketch comedy into something with actual bite.
Reviews
High concept ideas can either soar or crash based upon their execution, and with this short Lindsay manages to accomplish the former, taking a somewhat generic plot (snobbish man undone by an unconventional, unexpected superior) and giving it a unique tone and style. There's pure joy in the absurdity.