Reviewed by Melissa Garza
I found this short accidentally as I was perusing youtube for old horror trailers. It was 12 minutes long so my husband and I decided to watch it.
It opens with a shot of an outside window of a large two story home on a dark rainy night. Inside the babysitter, Julie (Rachel Bright) lies on the couch talking to her friend Cynthia (Kirsten Hazel Smith) on the phone. She hears the child, Dorothy Radford (Niamh Palmer Watson) crying and calling for her so she runs upstairs and calms her down.
When she returns downstairs a breaking television report states that the police are looking for an escape convict Alistair Radford (Tez Palmer). Julie pays little mind but as the night goes on things get strange. Julie has a nightmare unnerving her, and when Dorothy calls for her babysitter, Julie finds her standing on her bed not uttering a word. Later, she points to her dolls fearful of a bunny mixed in with her stuffed animals. That is all Julie can take and calls Mrs. Radford (Taryn Kay).
Initially, Julie conveys that all is okay in the household and that Dorothy seems to fear her stuffed animal bunny. Mrs. Radford is confused as she tells Julie that Dorothy has never had a toy bunny.
Suddenly, Julie realizes that it is Alistair hiding amongst the toys. She runs outside to phone the police but knows she has to return inside to save the child.
This is far from a new story. The babysitter in peril is one of the most clichéd horror plots. It has been done a hundred different ways and a thousand different times. Most efforts nowadays seem lackluster and boring. I’m happy to say that “The Red Balloon” does not fall into that category. Though, it doesn’t necessarily do anything ‘shocking’ nor does it have any type of dramatic twist ending it is an effective horror story that actually provides a tense atmosphere immediately upon starting.
The short utilizes silence to its advantage. It understands that no noise at all is sometimes more terrifying than a chilling sound. I have to say that as a short this does what few do. It told an entire story with a definitive ending and achieved its intent to keep the audience on edge.
The acting was great, pacing fantastic, and it stayed true to horror in a way so few do today. I would love to see a full length picture done by these guys to see if they can start bringing old-school horror back to the forefront
Scared Stiff Rating 8/10
I loved it but it reminds me of a part in AMUSEMENTTabitha
Tabitha is in front of a big house, later revealed as her aunt’s. She goes in and finds her two cousins, Max and Danny, completely alone. She asks the boys where the babysitter is and they say that she had already left. Later that evening, once the boys are in bed, Tabitha hears a knock on the door. Looking through the eyehole, she sees an anonymous figure in a hooded raincoat. She opens the door and inquires as to who they are. The figure tells her that he is the babysitter’s boyfriend, Owen. He’s very worried as she missed cheerleading practice. Tabitha admits that the babysitter had already left, but that she knows nothing else. Owen leaves.
After that, Tabitha goes into the guest bedroom upstairs and sees that the entire room is decorated with clown toys. One doll in particular scares her, a life-sized one sitting in the rocking chair. Her feeling of unease only intensifies as the television turns on without warning and the remote is in the clown’s lap. She goes to bed, but the thunderstorm wakes her up.
Still spooked by the clown, she turns around and faces her head away from it. Unbeknownst to her,the clown’s head turns to see her. Later, the phone rings. Tabitha walks to answer, not knowing that the clown had been watching her all along. The caller is her aunt, checking on the children. Tabitha assures that every thing is fine and compliments her own her new house. She does however express anxiety at the clown in her room. When her aunt asks which one, Tabitha says, “The one bigger than me”. Behind her, the clown rises and walks towards her.
On the phone, her aunt says that she has no such doll. Tabitha panicks and drops the phone, turning around to see the rocking chair empty. Terrified, she slips into the boys room and locks it. Tabitha whispers to wake up and hide, as a very bad man is in the house. The boys say that it is just Owen wanting to play, only increasing her terror.
After the older boy says that Owen just wants to have fun, triple-blade spikes go through the door several times, missing Tabitha by inches. She pulls their dresser against the door and gets the boys out by the window, telling them to go to their neighbor’s house and get help. The clown breaks the dresser and reaches out for Tabitha. She throws a lamp at him and climbs out of the window. Only moments later, the clown stands and attempts to stab her hand.
Tabitha falls down and runs to the shed. Opening a closet, she finds the babysitter’s corpse. The dead body falls and pins her down. Soon after, the clown enters the room laughing with a knife. His laugh is eerily similar to the Jeep driver’s…..
i heard that “the red balloon is based on true events. one stormy night a teenage babysitter hears crying from upstairs she checks three time before finding out a escaped mental man is in the house dressed as a bunny scaring the little girl that why she was crying. the teenager tries to escape the house but unluckily she get stabbed repeatidly in the stomach and back.
@GeeG – I never heard that. Do you happen to have a source/website with that information? I know that this story is very similar to an urban legend which has been passed down for generations, but it would be very interesting if this actually occurred.