Wallflowerish Boris (John Paul McGlynn) has not got one friend in the
world - but Miko. And he hasn't got one thing in the world to live for,
he's got a dead end job at the filthiest diner around, he is beaten up by
punks on a regular basis, and he lives in a fleapit of an apartment. He
hasn't got one thing in the world to live for ... but Miko. At this point
I might feel obliged to mention that Miko is actually a mouse, a mouse
Boris brings around wherever he goes.
Then one day, Boris finds an ad
for a trip to Mouse World, and he figures Mouse World will offer a better
life for him and Miko, together. However, when he goes to the travel
agency to book a journey to Mouse World, the travel agent (Syrie Wongkaew)
asks him to leave the mouse outside, which Boris does reluctantly. And
when he returns, he finds Miko gone, and later finds him killed by a bunch
of kids who actually believed they were doing the right thing.
Boris
gives Miko the best funeral a mouse has ever gotten, but tosses away the
tickets to Mouse World. After a few days of mourning, Boris decides to
face the world - and with it all his tormentors - again, with a new Miko
... only this time, Miko is an attack dog ...
Fun dark
drama/comedy short that in the beginning is very much reminiscent of the
1970's rat shocker Willard on many levels - and probably intentionally so
-, only to take a totally different trajectory eventually, ending up to be
a weirdly heartwarming story about a nerd and his mouse, though
heartwarming without ever becoming cheesy. And the ending with the new
Miko is just great, because it works on quite a few levels.
As mentioned
above: Fun!
If this review has at all sparked your interest feel free to
watch the film right now here:
Robots and rats,
demons and potholes, cuddly toys and shopping mall Santas,
love and death and everything in between, Tales to Chill Your Bones to is all of that.
Tales to Chill Your Bones to -
a collection of short stories and mini-plays ranging from the horrific to the darkly humourous,
from the post-apocalyptic to the weirdly romantic,
tales that will give you a chill and maybe a chuckle,
all thought up by the twisted mind of screenwriter and film reviewer Michael Haberfelner.
Tales to Chill Your Bones to
the new anthology by Michael Haberfelner