The Box Assassin
2020 · 3m · United States
Directed by Jeremy Schaefer
Genres: action, animation, comedy
Tones: absurdist, humorous, theatrical
A pizza delivery boy's unforgettable night collides with a slick, legendary assassin who surprises his targets by popping out of all sorts of boxes.
Picked by Felix
The scouts
A pizza delivery boy meets an assassin who emerges from boxes—the kind of stupid-genius premise that shouldn't work but does, precisely because it commits to the absurdity without winking. This is the contrarian move: taking a ridiculous gimmick and making it *the* movie, which is exactly what cowards avoid.
The theatrical staging and absurdist tone sit uneasily between comedy and action, lacking the formal rigor or clear lineage that would elevate this beyond a high-concept sketch. Well-executed within its constraints, but the premise overwhelms any opportunity for the kind of sustained formal consideration that lingers.
The decision to make the assassin's emergence from increasingly arbitrary boxes the visual hook—rather than traditional action beats—is clever economy, though the 3-minute runtime doesn't quite allow the filmmaking choice itself to breathe into something singular.
Reviews
What Jeremy Schaefer's animated short lacks in depth, it makes up for with action and style. If cats were assassins, this is how they'd do it.