Death in Charge

• Directed By: Devi Snively
• Written By: Devi Snively
• Country: USA
• Released: 2008
• Running Time: 15 minutes
• Links: Official site
• Comedy, Fantasy, Horror, Reviews

Death in Charge is based on a screenplay writer/director Devi Snively’s wrote in reaction to the Columbine High School shootings. The film attempts to ask what provokes children to shoot people, and does so in a manner that draws heavily on the tradition of the old EC Comics while managing to remain contemporary.

Following the opening scene in which a tardy babysitter is killed Death turns up at the home of single mother, Sandy (Gillian Shure) who is heading out for the night. Sandy is in such a rush to get out of the front door that she doesn’t pay enough attention to realise that the Grim Reaper isn’t her usual babysitter.

Thus, Death finds herself spending an evening in the company of precocious nine-year-old, Whitney (Kylie Chalfa).

Death in Charge is both funny and moving, an achievement due in no small part to the fact that both of the lead characters put in superb performances. This is especially true of Marina Benedict who plays Death as an innocent abroad, experiencing 21st century life for the first time rather than just ending it. Kylie Chalfa also does an excellent job of bringing Whitney to life and, over the course of the evening, a real relationship develops between the two characters.

It’s because of the believability of this relationship that, when Whitney reveals reveals some dark tenancies of her own, her attitude is as thoroughly believable as Death’s response.

Death in Charge is also a wonderfully atmospheric film. The soundtrack does a great job of setting the tone, but the cinematography is something else again with bold, bright, colours – bordering on the primary colour palate of the older comics – that give the film an almost unreal quality that looks utterly gorgeous.

With Death in Charge, Devi Snively has attempted to make a darkly comic horror film with something serious to say about contemporary society. This is probably one of the most difficult films to make but, in this case, has succeeded spectacularly.