All These Creatures Review
It’s incredible to see some of the things short films are capable of doing with little to no dialogue at all. In some cases, what short films are able to do without dialogue and only cinematography, narration and music, is more powerful than what some feature-films attempt to convey in 90 minutes laden with dialogue. It’s like how in music there are songs that are 5+ minutes long with no vocals at all, but that song will leave a more profound effect on you than one with actual vocals. That’s how it felt to watch All These Creatures.
Writer and director, Charles Williams, uses the simple premise of an insect infestation to explore how mental illness can be viewed and thought of. In All These Creatures, an adolescent boy thinks of the time there was an infestation of psychidaes and other “creatures” in his backyard. At this same time, he began to witness a change in his father. His father would spend all his time in the backyard, he’d often go lost for days, and the time he spent with his family was always filled with anger, irritation and depression. The boy’s mother would try to help the father, but even then, he would be harmful to her. The young boy sees his father losing his mind as the days go by.
Charles Williams aligns the insect infestation to suggest the inexplainable mental infestation that happens to the father. It’s nothing that anyone did or any singular event that occurred, it’s just what happened. His father’s mental illness was bound to appear, just like how the insects were perhaps bound to invade their yard. The young boy tries to reason with it at first. He assumes it’s because of the insects, that they bother his father so much he begins to behave this way. It’s not until later, when he’s learning about how mental illnesses begin and spread through one’s brain, that he realizes there’s not much he can do for his father. He even becomes worried when the kids he hangs out with begin telling him that the same thing that’s going on with his father would later happen to him. He thinks he can train himself now to try and prevent it, to try and seem “normal”, but he knows in the end that if it’s within him now, there’s not much he can do to fight it.
It’s a wonderful analogy told in a brilliant way. To see it from a child’s view is how some people even view mental illness today; thinking there’s one moment or event that can be attributed to someone’s behavior.
The progression of the young boy realizing what it is and his sad realization that there’s nothing he can do for his father or even one day for himself, is represented perfectly. The only scene with actual dialogue in it, is the last time the boy is with his father. He listens to him go on a rant, talking about “fake people” and that “we” are the real people. This culminates to a tragic accident that causes his father to have a mental breakdown. After seeing this breakdown, his father drives away without him and he knows he will never see him again.
All These Creatures deservedly went on to do very well, winning many awards for the writing and directing of Charles Williams. On top of that, it won the Palme d’Or, for Best Short Film at the Cannes Film Festival.
