Monster Eats Boy

"Clean up your bedroom, or else!" Cinematographer Simon Raby (The Girl on the Bridge, Mortal Engines) wrote, shot and directed this super short short film, which imagines what the 'or else' part of that common parental threat might mean. A teenager relaxing on his bed chucks away his apple and notices movement beneath the sea of junk on his floor. He chooses a weapon and fights the unseen 'monster' from his bed, but the creature circles in for the kill. Monster Eats Boy was one of a series of rADz — so-called 'radical art ads' — commissioned to screen during ad breaks on the TV4 channel.

With ad-space during off-peak times being relatively cheap, Wellington-based producer Barry Thomas hit upon the idea of using these spaces to make very short films. Film as haiku, so to speak. From 110 applicants, a panel of judges selected 26 proposals from filmmakers, each receiving $500 in grant money to produce a film from 15 - 90 seconds in length.

– Press release for the rADz scheme, NZ Film Commission website

Key Cast & Crew

Marek Sumich

As: The Boy

Eamon O'Kane

Composer

Barry Thomas

Executive Producer

Sally Thomas

Composer

Cushla Dillon

Editor

Simon Raby

Director, Writer, Cinematographer