Grump in the Night
2022 · 6m · United States
Directed by Kris Theorin
Genres: animation, comedy, fantasy
Tones: darkly comic, humorous, whimsical
One stormy night, a man awoken by strange noises downstairs faces off with a TV-loving poltergeist.
Picked by Zoe
The scouts
A poltergeist that's basically a couch potato is genuinely funny in its refusal to be menacing, but the premise doesn't quite flip the genre hard enough to feel like genuine subversion—it's more playful than provocative.
Theorin demonstrates assured command of comedic timing and animation staging in service of a well-worn haunted-house setup, though the film doesn't quite extend its formal vocabulary beyond what the genre already knows.
The decision to make the supernatural threat something petulant and TV-addicted rather than threatening completely reframes the tension from fear to absurdist negotiation, and that tonal pivot—sustained through animation and performance choices—is what makes this small concept sing.