Summary
For a low-budget horror short film, Flashback impresses with some inventive camera work and a surprisingly moving narrative. And like all good shorts, Jed Shepherd’s Netflix original will leave you hungry for more, working as a starter before the main event.
Writer/director Jed Shepherd (Host) returns to the horror genre once more with his 2023 Netflix horror short Flashback, which works as another refreshing example of how Netflix continues to support up-and-coming, homegrown British filmmakers in the industry, giving them a voice and a platform in these unpredictable times.
As horror fans will attest, Jed Shepherd is best known for co-writing the 2020 horror flick Host, which I have to say is one of the scariest films I’ve watched in recent times. Since that low-budget, lockdown movie’s premiere, its creators have slowly made their way across the pond to Hollywood, thanks to the film’s stylish innovation and subsequent success.
Host’s director Rob Savage went on to helm the Stephen King adaptation, The Boogeyman, and now Jed Shepherd is collaborating with Netflix on Flashback. But is this new partnership a match made in heaven or a hellish dead end? And can Jed Shepherd elicit the same chilling scares as he so eloquently mastered with his 2020 hit?
Flashback (Netflix Short) review and plot summary
Flashback tells the story of yoga teacher Jess, played by Jemma Moore, who also happened to star in Host. We find our leading lady living a normal, happy existence until one day she starts to see haunting visions of a creepy, hooded figure. This figure is known as Doctor Bones, a childhood urban legend. A creature built with a skeletal vulture’s head and a skeleton man’s body, cloaked to look like death itself.
Jess tells her friend Lily (Haley Bishop) about these visions but is forced to laugh it off as crazy talk. Back at home, Jess’ boyfriend Scott (Amar Chadha-Patel) is preparing to propose and is even talking about starting a family with Jess. But their perfect moment is interrupted by a deadly home invasion.
This fateful night sends Jess on a journey back through time as she attempts to change her past to protect the man she loves back in the present. As Jess travels through her life’s memories, can she stop time itself to warn her lover of this future crime?
Is Flashback (Netflix Short) worth watching?
Flashback may be your standard short film offering, but it works well within its limits. Jed Shepherd finds time to explore some nifty camera techniques and layer some surprising emotion into this time-travel storyline.
When Jess starts to journey back through time, the camera spirals from one scene to the next. This inventive and stylized sequence is definitely the highlight of the short film, pointing towards a bright and promising future for the filmmaker.
The script is very British, with Jess tenderly telling her boyfriend that she loves them more than chips at one point. This is touchingly called back to later in the story. It’s a simplistic narrative overall, working within the punishing time restraints of the short film format, but it still manages to end with a satisfying conclusion nonetheless. Flashback offers humor and heart, but very little actual horror.
Like most short films, Flashback will work best as a starter before the main course, an interesting opening film before the main event. A teaser to lull you into a false sense of security before you dig into a feature-length horror movie this spooky season.
What did you think of the Netflix horror short Flashback? Comment below.
