User Reviews

"Caged" is an American 8-minute live action short film from 2017, so among the most recent efforts by director and co-writer Derek Sulek, who has been really prolific in the last five years. I think this is the first film I have seen from him. I see Dorian Gregory in the cast list here and as somebody who watched Charmed in its entirety, this was a positive surprise of course. Sadly, he does not have too much screen time. The central character is played by Jenna Willis, even if, after an unsuccessful suicide attempt, she mostly plays the character's conscience rather than the character itself. After the crash, we see her in a coma inside a hospital surrounded by her loves one(s). I personally enjoyed the first four minutes quite a bit. The presentation to the whole situation was handled pretty nicely and it's not a problem that it makes up over half of the entire film. Sadly the moment she breaks out of the cage and seems about to die, things go south quickly. The fights with these creatures out there did not really do too much for me and even the parts inside the hospital felt more like filler material. And the ending with the moving finger and her beating her demons if you want to say so and suddenly developing a will to live again felt a bit as too much of a happy ending for my taste, especially given the doctor's (Gregory's) prediction. And especially as it happens so quickly. Miraculous for the sake of it. The film has certainly some nice ambition to it and the earlier parts are executed well with talent clearly visible. However, the ways in which the quality drastically decreased the longer it went were on a level where the overall outcome is hurt so much that I have to give the film a thumbs-down. Not recommended.