The Queue
2023 · 11m · United States
Directed by Michael Rich
Genres: drama, horror, thriller
Cole is a new online content monitor for the FBI. Upon discovering the final message of his predecessor, he finds a new meaning of 'images seared into your brain.'
Picked by Felix
The scouts
A found-footage horror setup that could've been paint-by-numbers becomes genuinely unsettling by refusing to show you what broke the last guy—the restraint is the weird move, and it works. Most scouts see 'FBI monitor watches disturbing content' and think torture-porn; Rich weaponizes implication instead.
The film operates within a precise formal constraint—the bureaucratic interface as frame, the unseen image as narrative engine—that recalls the structural rigor of early Haneke or Koreeda's deadpan compositions. Rich's choice to locate horror in what we *don't* witness positions this thoughtfully within a lineage of negative space filmmaking.
The decision to hold on Cole's face as he reads the predecessor's message, letting us watch comprehension curdle into dread without cutting away, is the entire film—that single performance beat and the sound design underneath it does more work than most shorts with ten times the budget.
Reviews
Michael Rich's THE QUEUE is the physical manifestation of PTSD from vile online videos. This superb film thrives on audio and the performance of Burt Bulos.