Satan's Barn

Written by Andreas Babiolakis


This is a review of a film from The Great Canadian Horror Film Festival that just concluded. Click here to find information surrounding the upcoming The Great Canadian Sci-Fi Film Festival.

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Satan’s Barn — or Children of Satan in English — is Thea Hvistendhahl’s latest film; a short that is clear in its direction of what kind of horror it wishes to be. The Great Canadian Horror Film Festival is otherwise full of mostly fun horror homages and throwbacks, but it also made space for this flick and its drastically different approach: pure terror. We meet two young girls at a Christian camp, and their run in with a new camper who opens them to a whole new world (of sorts). Satan’s Barn is more of an experience than a story, as we see the set, colour correction, and editing all kick into high gear to try and instil the inexplicable phenomena of the film.

It’s one of those instances — like many shorts — where I can only imagine what would have come next. This only feels like the beginning: a taste tester at a grocery store, and you’re itching to get a jar of what’s being served (and yet they’re all sold out). I love the visual aspect of Satan’s Barn, especially the use of flickering neon flashes and heightened colours overall. I appreciate the mystery that sifts around, and the lunging attacks of the film’s big shocks. Even the open-ended conclusion that leaves us in the cold is rather fitting. Still, Satan’s Barn doesn’t feel quite resolved, because I can only wonder where we go from here still. Still, shorts can be made in order to lead to bigger projects, and maybe that was the purpose of Satan’s Barn: like a demo reel but even better. I can’t go too much more into this project, considering it is so small in scale and clearly a demonstration rather than a fully fledged idea, but Satan’s Barn still is interesting enough that I did honestly feel even slightly hooked.

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Andreas Babiolakis has a Masters degree in Film and Photography Preservation and Collections Management from Ryerson University, as well as a Bachelors degree in Cinema Studies from York University. His favourite times of year are the Criterion Collection flash sales and the annual Toronto International Film Festival.