“Leave it…he doesn’t want any of his dad’s cheese! Do you, son?”
‘The Heritage’, written and directed by Andrew Rutter alongside co-writer Chris Butler, is an absolutely grotesque affair, as most family entanglements tend to be.
Our protagonist, Dylan, is eager to meet his father (played by Bruce Jones) at the start of the short, following a life over the course of which he never met either of his parents. Naturally, the clean-cut young man (played by Matt McClure) has a few questions for his elusive father, yet it is safe to say that the truths he uncovers are not at all what he had been searching for.
The carefully curated cacophony that makes up Albert’s existence greets us a few moments before we catch a glimpse of the man himself. We are met with various squelches and otherwise damp sounds, and only then do we see for ourselves this man whom Dylan had longed to meet.
Credit: 20th Century DigitalAlbert is more so a formless figure than one of a father. From where he sits in the center of the dimly lit room, Albert remains pillowed and entirely enveloped in swathes of irritated flesh, boils, and other protrusions. His skin overwhelms and reshapes the chair he is bound to, rooting him there.
It is a horrific sight, to say the least, and one which raises many questions that are never answered.
Why is the cheese so hairy, for instance? And in that same vein, how did no one else notice that the exploding pus pocket ended up in Dylan’s cup of tea?
These surface-level details aren’t the only gross elements playing into this atmosphere of disgust and distaste, however. Albert is a lewd man himself, you see.
Yet the most frightening element of the short is not the horror of the reality that we’re seeing, necessarily. Rather, it is the horror of knowing. This is Dylan’s gene pool, after all. It is possible that what we’re seeing in Albert could very well be some vision of Dylan’s future.
It runs in the family.
Towards the conclusion of the film, the suicide plotline began to feel like a bit of a cheap shot in the grand scheme of things. The horror evolved into something more sensational than anything, and as a viewer, I yearned for a return to the core of what this story really seemed to be about.
Perhaps if we stuck to this true horror, being Dylan’s heritage, then the ending would have had a more impactful landing. The stronger emotional foundation of this short lies in the possibility that Dylan, the protagonist, could eventually become this creature…just like his father.
Was rage what transformed Albert into this entity? Were they…absorbed…? Where was this supernatural light-flickering power stemming from, I wonder?
Nevertheless, I was almost able to overlook these lingering questions when face-to-face with the crisp cinematography that the film offered. The unsettling atmosphere of grime and sweat–the damp, stained surface of it all– evoked a world that felt much too lived in for anyone’s taste. As per the intention of this frighteningly intimate film.
‘The Heritage’ took home the Panic Fest 2023 Audience Choice Award for Best Special FX and Best Actor in the short film programming categories.
Credit: 20th Century Digital
