Darkened Room (David Lynch, 2008, USA)

David Lynch's Darkened Room (2008) begins with a Japanese woman talking about her friend sitting in a darkened room. "My friend is crying," she says. The film then cuts to the friend in the darkened room, filmed from a distance. "Do you see her? I cannot see my friend." A low drumbeat pulses in the background of the film. The Japanese woman then addresses a person named John. There is a dummy on a couch cushion, and the camera then pans to the friend in the darkened room, who has been crying - as we can see from her running mascara.

We then go to a close-up of the crying woman's face. "Are you listening to me? Please come out here." She looks around the room. The friend in the room asks someone to "come out here," and begs them even further. We return to the original shot of the friend in the room. Another woman in a white dress enters the room and approaches the woman, while a man in a white t-shirt stands in the doorway. The woman in the white dress exclaims about a hole in her slip, and how she has no idea how it got there.

The woman in the slip asks the friend to look at her. She tells the friend that she notices things, every single thing - in a menacing tone. "You're gonna realize it real soon." The woman in the slip blames the friend, telling her that the watches "weren't even working watches." This threatening scenario marks the conclusion of one of David Lynch's more intriguing and menacing short films. The film is clearly in the mold of Inland Empire, as the tone and digital video style echo that film significantly. Overall, Darkened Room is one of David Lynch's more satisfying short films.

7/10