Take Care
2025 · 11m · USA
Directed by Brittany Ashley
Genres: dark comedy, drama, horror
Tones: dark, darkly comic, melancholic
A self-destructive woman deliberately injures herself to be taken care of by an ER nurse she's grown attached to, exploring how far someone would go for affection and care.
Picked by Margot
The scouts
Self-harming to be cared for by a specific ER nurse — that's a perversely lucid premise about loneliness, and Courtney Pauroso plus Stephanie Courtney is a real comedy bench. May plus Ingrid Goes West with a feeding-tube wink.
The self-harm-as-affection-seeking premise approaches Lucky McKee's May with a dark-comedy sheath — Courtney Pauroso is a precise enough comic instrument to navigate that tone. Difficult material handled by people who appear to know exactly what they're doing.
Courtney Pauroso and Stephanie Courtney in a body-horror dark comedy about deliberately injuring yourself to see a specific ER nurse — that premise demands precise tonal control, and the casting suggests they have it. Eleven minutes is the right window for this not to wear out.
Reviews
Ashley crafts a surprisingly nuanced narrative, with emotional depth hidden under its entertaining surface layer. Courtney Pauroso delivers a remarkable performance with sharp comedic timing and impressive nuance.
Take Care takes a twisted premise and turns it into something darkly funny and unsettling. Leah's obsession is both cringeworthy and oddly sympathetic, and the short balances satire with stalker horror perfectly.
Festivals
- Frameline Film Festival 2025
- Palm Springs International ShortFest 2025
- Aesthetica Short Film Festival 2025
- Nashville Film Festival 2025