Nosepicker
2023 · 16m · United Kingdom
Directed by Ian Mantgani
Genres: coming-of-age, dark comedy, horror
Tones: darkly comic, provocative, surreal
A 'tale of the unexpected' about Georgie, an 8-year-old schoolboy with a nasty habit of picking his nose — a compulsion that draws bullying at school and an argument between his parents, until things take a grotesque turn.
Picked by Felix
The scouts
A premise about a kid's nose-picking habit that somehow escalates into genuine body-horror territory—this is exactly the kind of 'wait, WHAT?' escalation that makes consensus scouts squirm, and Mantgani commits to the grotesque turn without winking or apologizing for it.
The film walks a tightrope between British schoolboy comedy and Cronenbergian transgression with deliberate formal control, positioning itself between the whimsy of Aardman and the visceral unease of contemporary horror—a hybrid that requires real precision to avoid collapsing into either camp.
The single decision to take a mundane childhood compulsion and follow it into genuinely unsettling physical territory, without ever breaking the naturalistic school-and-home setting, is what transforms a disposable premise into something that lands; it's a tonal commitment that a bigger budget would probably have second-guessed.
Reviews
It's well-filmed and well-acted, and it really tells you what's happening at all times. The, um, effects shots, are really nasty and well-executed.