Appendage Review

January 26, 2022 at 10:11pm
By Jason Stettner

This is a short film that follows a young fashion designer that is trying to make the best of her anxiety and self-doubt. After getting brutally shut down as being derivative, a young woman performed by Rachel Sennott is greeted with a fresh appendage that has grown out of her. It’s a bit grotesque looking and decently reactive.

Initially she’s out to get this sort of thing which causes a bit of a brawling scenario, but alas there might be something deeper here beyond the growth. It’s a sense of motivation, perhaps inspiration and definitely a bit of horror for one having to deal with it.

This was decently well shot, it’s quite precise in the few intimate spaces it shows and displays some alright horror action going on. The acting from the lead was fine, as was her initial antagonist played by Eric Roberts.

It does have a little bit of gore to it as is expected. I just didn’t find that this really went wild in regards to mixing things up at all. It was fairly predictable and straight forward. A neat message, but nothing I haven’t seen from this genre prior.

The Conclusion

Appendage is a decent dive into what one can do to deal with anxiety and self-doubt, as it begins to manifest in a surprising way. This was a fine watch, it was easy to consume and not too long as many would imagine a short film to be.

I was intrigued by it in terms of what it provided, yet at the same time not as blown away by it as I would have anticipated. The meaning behind what goes on here is of course intriguing, it just comes across as something I’ve seen prior in other films.

Appendage Review at Home with Streamed Viewing during Sundance Film Festival
Screening Provided by Sundance Film Festival

Rating Overall: 6.2