Tattletale (2024) Review

Tattletale (2024) Review

Since late last year I have been wary of taking on reviews that come my way outside of the usual marketing folks that regularly tempt me with their ample wares. The reason for this is that following a review I wrote for a low-budget found-footage UFO flick, where I did my best to highlight any strengths, if any, that the film had I was met with contempt and spite from the person who approached me to put my thoughts about his work out there.

Before posting the review, I emailed it to the film’s director who then accused me of not having watched the film fully (I had, unfortunately) simply because I never once mentioned the film’s gory finale (I opted not to as it was the worst part of the film). There was no ‘thank-you,’ no adult response such as ‘oh well, sorry it was not to your taste,’ instead there was vitriol and unfounded accusations. Consequently I became reluctant of taking on anyone else’s labour-of-love lest the same thing happen to me again.

So, when I was approached to review short film TATTLETALE, the latest from director Eric A Branstrom, I was initially wary. However, such fears were allayed when I sat down and watched this twenty-one minute feature. There was no chance of me upsetting the director, or anyone else involved, as I have nothing remotely ‘off’ to say about it.

TATTLETALE does what it sets out to do within its wee timeframe and does so confidently. Aside from an initial two-way conversation at the start this is near dialogue-free. Sustained by a remarkably effective and terrific score by Stalk the Owls TATTLETALE is worth a look as it does not overreach, as some short films do, nor waste any of its runtime either with extraneous detail. It’s too the point and more welcome for being so.