Black Sugar (2013) User Reviews

Be careful what you ask for...

[the lioness · 6/10 · 17 February 2022]

This short film is about a group of bored teens who decide to eat a treat that sends them to a dark realm.

While I've seen some short films that are made on bigger budgets, I commend the film makers for their imagination. The plot is very interesting and I would like to see a longer version of this film. Another thing I found interesting about this short film is the film makers are Lovecraftians and it shows. They understand the concept behind Eldritch beings from another dimension and the terror they can create.

While this short film isn't the best, I still give the film makers kudos on the concept and the story.

Nice darkness to it, and a good concept but some of the acting is poor this hurts it more than it should (SPOILERS)

[bob the moo · 20 August 2014]

A group of 4 suburban kids meet up in a disused building to drink some beers and take some new drugs they recently purchased off the internet. While the fourth one of the group refuses, the other take the mushy drug called 'Black Sugar' and soon are mentally transported to another state, while the fourth looks on. Within their drug-induced state though, is something much darker and more dangerous than they could have imagined.

This short film is a very nice idea and a very nice attempt at something good. I came into the film only knowing that some kids try a new drug, so the sudden introduction to a world of demonic figures, real physical danger and giant worms feeding on the drug users, really did take me by surprise and I found it pretty engaging. The dark world is filled with tension and urgency which contrasts very nicely with the sunny open building in which the trio stand almost totally still. The special effects are perhaps not totally convincing, but for a low-budget short film, they are effective. I liked that the world of the drug feels like it is a horrible, horrible reality and that it seems to have a function to present and feed its victims; okay it didn't flesh it out, but there is enough here to make sense in the context of this short.

The film really falls down though when it comes to the execution of the idea – specifically in the acting stakes. The worst two are unfortunately the two characters you need to make it work. The first is the 4th boy, the one who wisely says 'no'; he is clunky and unconvincing throughout – really robbing the real world scenes of the urgency and horror that they needed. The main role is not quite as bad, but he is also a little bit too simple and heroic in his performance – and it is made worse that he seems to just flick a switch into this, without involving the fear he had early doors.

It is a shame, but as an idea and as a short film, it does work, producing a dark world of horror which we are thrown into very quickly. The limits of the effects I was willing to accept because the director does a good job with the atmosphere, but the weak performances really hurt it when really they should have been what made it even more gripping and real.

puzzle

[Kirpianuscus · 17 March 2018]

Mix of fantasy, teen movies, horror, it is remarkable at the level of special effects. but no more. after its end, the story seems to fragile and the performances are just drawings. and the strange "sugar" remains a sort of jelly with poppy seeds. so, a decent film. but far to be convincing. or exploring the posibilities of story.