The Receder
2021 · 7m · Netherlands
Directed by Raymon Hilkman
Genres: dark comedy, fantasy, horror
Tones: absurdist, darkly comic, surreal
When a balding young man's receding hairline drives him to consider shaving his head, he discovers a foul-mouthed entity living in his remaining hair that refuses to let go, sparking a bloody one-man battle.
Picked by Felix
The scouts
A foul-mouthed entity living in hair follicles that won't vacate — it's the kind of absurdist horror-comedy premise that makes you genuinely unsure if you're watching genius or madness, and that uncertainty is exactly why it works. Hilkman refuses to let the conceit become comfortable, and that's the move everyone else would've soft-pedaled.
The film's commitment to body horror as existential comedy places it in a lineage with early Cronenberg and contemporary surrealist shorts, though it struggles to sustain formal rigor across seven minutes — the tonal shifts between grotesque and absurd feel impulsive rather than architecturally considered.
The decision to make the entity genuinely unintelligible — layered dialogue, overlapping voices, a presence you can't quite parse — transforms what could be a one-joke concept into something tactile and unsettling, and that sound design choice is what elevates it from sketch to actual short film.
Reviews
The resulting conflict plays out as an epic one-man battle that would do Bruce Campbell proud, with a great mix of wince-inducing violence and delightful physical comedy.