Short Film “Bear”: Subverting Expectations to Being Predictable Within a Couple of Seconds.

The 2011 short film titled “Bear” can certainly be described in the word “shocking”. With a short run time of about eleven minutes it certainly showcases a large level of technical skill. However, it still leaves a sour taste when it all comes to an end.

To briefly summarize what the film shows, there is an argument between a couple, named Jack and Emelie respectively. Jack rushes out the house when she leaves to surprise her while she is biking in the wilderness in a bear costume. In Emelie’s fright, she goes straight off of a nearby cliff and is injured. Jack goes down to find her still alive and in trying to comfort her, he puts the bear head back on, and is promptly shot by a character listed as “ranger.”

I was a bit bewildered by the beginning of this film as most of the filming involved close ups and switched between handheld shooting and that done on a tripod. With the initial setup of the argument between the two I believed it was going to lead more into interpersonal communication and drama.

So to see the shift into the wilderness was the first hint that something was amiss. I however was not expecting it to be explicit with near death (and subsequent death) to appear not too long after in the last 4 minutes of the film. It goes without saying that it was a surprise and left an impact on me for the day.

Is it well filmed? Quite so. Is there passion? Yes. It achieves what it wants to do and that is deliver that ending as a subversion of expectations. Until it lost the surprise with the second portion with Jack getting shot, as it became pretty clear with the environment and tone from there on that the filmed clearly wanted to give a second surprise as if to say, “Thought it couldn’t get worse?”

I don’t mean to say that because I predicted the second twist that it is suddenly bad. However, it made it clear to me that the reasoning behind the film’s creation was to provide shock value. The shock is there, but it feels hollow and ends up just leaving a depressing mood unto me.

The IMDB page tags it as comedy, but frankly I would be a bit concerned if it comes across as funny. The small “what did I just see” laugh maybe, but anything past raises some eyebrows to me.

Overall, despite its good film work and acting that felt surprisingly real for a short film, I wouldn’t recommend it. Other articles state that it is a follow up to a film named “Spider” by the same director, and that may change the perception of this film. As a standalone though, Bear just feels like an empty punchline.

Much like the emptiness from the lack of music or actual score.