By GRACE DETWILER
“The Perfect Place to Cry” opens with a woman alone in her car, seeking solitude to grieve a broken heart. But her private moment turns eerie when a bloodied man stumbles from the woods. She panics, rolling up her window—only for a second man to emerge and violently attack him. What follows is an unexpected exchange that shifts the film’s tone in very unexpected ways.
Set to premiere on ALTER on March 24, this six-minute short from writer/director Shane Bannon and actor/producer Celina Bernstein thrives on tension, blending dread with dark comedy. The film builds unease through restraint, capturing horror not just in violence but in the surreal absurdity of human reactions. Moments of quiet ambiguity add complexity, making the horror feel unsettlingly personal rather than purely monstrous.
Sharing his inspirations with RUE MORGUE, Bannon tells us, “I often refer to this short as ‘a nighttime poem.’ The idea came to me one night when I couldn’t sleep, and we tried to carry that sense of dreaminess through all of production. If we succeeded, I credit that to our Director of Photography, Matt Kleppner. He is one of my closest friends and collaborators, and his care for story and tone elevate everything he touches. We were very inspired by nighttime flash photography, as well as the dreamlike landscapes of Gregory Crewdson.”
Celina Bernstein’s performance anchors the short, her raw emotional responses bringing authenticity to the unfolding nightmare. Her character’s shifting fear—from the wounded man to his killer—adds depth, emphasizing the film’s humanist perspective on horror. Of her performance, Celina shared, “I think that sometimes, the less you know, the more terrifying a situation can be. When the short begins, my character doesn’t think she’s in a horror film, so seeing a bludgeoned shirtless man emerge from the woods seems like the worst case scenario. But when the reality of her situation sets in, and she starts communicating with an actual human being who seems to have empathy for her, it can be hard to not feel something in return.”
Shane Bannon also commented on the unexpected dark humor that accompanies the short’s punchline of an ending: “That moment was definitely meant as a comedic release of all the tension that builds up through the short. I find that with rising dread, you usually have two options to build towards: a scare or a laugh. Either way, there’s an explosion of sorts. In my short films, I often try to subvert that binary by transforming dread into a sort of warmth. By leaving out that cathartic release, it moves an audience to a place that is, in my opinion, uniquely vulnerable to the emotional core of the story.”
Premiering on ALTER on March 24, “The Perfect Place to Cry” embraces ambiguity, refusing to over-explain its chilling premise. Bannon and Bernstein trust the audience to fill in the blanks, making the film linger long after it ends. In just six minutes, it delivers a sharp, haunting experience that proves horror is most powerful when it leaves your questions unanswered.
