Burrow (2023)

I don’t know about you, but if I’d been stuck out in the wilderness on my own for six years, believing myself to be the last man on earth, I’m not too sure I’d care if the next person I met was man, woman or vegetable when it came to a desire for sex. Therefore I don’t really know what is to be read into this short story about former soldier “John” (Christian Coulson) who quite literally stumbles upon “Arian” (Marc Crousillat) lying amidst the undergrowth. He takes him back to his home (where there appears to be electricity and gas for the stove) and they chat. His new friend is a former ballet dancer on his way cross-country to rendezvous with his parents, so they agree that if he helps him hunt next day, “John” will provide “Arian” with supplies for his journey. At the point of departure, though, something unexpected occurs. What I did like were the presence of the snakes, intercut throughout the story, that suggested to me something devilish was afoot. Otherwise, though, it’s just too short to do justice to what I think it wanted to say about the effects of loneliness and isolation on “John”.