The Meeting Spot
2023 · 19m · USA
Directed by Lauren Sick
Genres: horror, romance, thriller
Tones: contemplative, melancholic, tense
A skeptical science major scours the streets of New York City searching for proof of the afterlife, becoming entangled in both a romantic and existential confrontation with grief and belief.
Picked by Felix
The scouts
A horror film whose protagonist refuses to believe in the horror — that's not a story about the supernatural, that's a story about denial in a trench coat.
Lauren Sick smuggles rigorous skepticism into a supernatural romance and asks the audience to hold both registers — the genre tension is the conceit, and Ben Rosenfield is well-cast for the science-major-of-it-all.
Smuggling rigorous scientific skepticism into supernatural horror-romance is the kind of register-collision that mostly fails — but when it works, it works. Nineteen minutes is a real commitment and the synopsis doesn't quite sell the execution.
Festivals
- Screamfest Horror Film Festival 2023
- Nashville Film Festival 2023
- Seattle International Film Festival 2023
- LA International Horror Film Festival 2023, Best Director