Meat Puppet
2024 · 12m · UK
Directed by Eros V
Genres: comedy, fantasy, horror
Tones: absurdist, darkly comic, tense
On the day he promised his girlfriend he'd grow up, a man-child inadvertently traps himself inside a puppet — launching a wild comedy-horror ride that blends practical puppetry with nearly 100 VFX shots.
Picked by Zoe
The scouts
SXSW winner about a man-child literally trapped inside a puppet via practical morphsuits + 100 VFX shots. The premise IS the movie — but the premise is great.
An SXSW Award winner combining practical puppetry with extensive VFX rod-removal — David Jonsson's casting is a notable indicator. The premise is cleverer than its Liar Liar comparisons suggest, but it lives in commercial-genre territory.
SXSW Award Winner, 345K views, and the practical-puppetry + 100-VFX-shot hybrid is the kind of craft over-investment that pays off in genre comedy. The morphsuit-puppeteer-plus-rod-removal pipeline at 11:58 is genuinely ambitious for the runtime.
Reviews
Exceptionally awkward and executed in just the right way to be super funny — the concept is notably creative and the real puppet work adds to its impact.
Insanely creative and absurd, but also deeper and more clever than initially meets the eye — a balls to the wall, all killer no filler thrill ride.
Festivals
- SXSW 2024, Special Jury Prize, Audience Award
- Neuchâtel International Fantastic Film Festival 2024, Winner
- Sitges Film Festival 2024, Best Short Film
- BIFA 2024, Best British Short (nominated)