Mule (2018)

Directed by: Jasper Vrancken | 18 minutes | drama, horror, short film | Actors: Matthieu Sys, Pascal Maetens, Pieter Piron, Myrthe Kramer

The introverted nurse Richard is unhappy in his (sex) life. We get to know him as the loving caretaker of a sick old lady, but during the break he swipes through erotic ads on his phone. The twenty-something is single and obviously looking for what turns him on. He investigates whether the fetish that has kept him busy for a while actually suits him.

He is introduced to Max through an advertisement. They meet on a forest trail, where they both park their cars. On foot they go to a kind of bunker, where dangerous sounds can be heard behind a door closed with a chain. The traces of blood are alarming, but Richard – as well as the viewer – remains intrigued. An escort at home is unable to help Richard, which reveals itself in two divergent encounters at his home. Funny and sad at the same time.

‘Muil’ is a short psychological horror film, in which filmmaker Jasper Vrancken has found the perfect balance between discomfort and fascination. Nowhere does the film become explicit, which is also not necessary for the imaging. In effectively shot scenes, Vrancken uses a beautiful symbolism: the patient dependent on Richard, the photos Richard looks at on the internet, who suddenly start looking at you with different eyes because you suspect what excites him, the door behind which Richard may find redemption… ‘Muil ‘ is a dark, cleverly made short film that, in the same effective and catchy way as Steve McQueen did with ‘Shame’ (2011), makes clear the inner conflict in the protagonist.