Finley is a 2019 short horror-comedy produced and directed by J Zachary Thurman. He co-wrote it with Maddison (Maddie) Stroud. It’s a pretty well-known film with 17 million views on YouTube. And I have yet to meet someone who doesn’t love it. If you haven’t seen it, scroll down to the link below and watch it.
Finley is one of many examples of how short films are more consistently good than features. And that’s especially true when it comes to horror. There are many reasons for this. But this little masterpiece highlights one of the more obscure reasons: simplicity.
One Great Idea
A short film can have one idea and work beautifully. Finley is very simple: Evil ventriloquist dummy is incompetent. Finley himself isn’t deep: he likes the cat and wants to kill everyone else. The three human principals could easily be interchanged. They have no defining characteristics. The film works because the idea is brilliant.
Of course, Finley could be so much less! But the plot is outstanding. The first part establishes Finley as incompetent as he tries to kill the main characters. The second part shows Finley finally able to use those skills successfully against home invaders. And the third part finds Finley finally accepted by the family but still being homicidal and killing everyone.
Lesser storytellers (like the writers at SNL) wouldn’t have moved past the first part. So it’s more than just a good idea. It’s working that idea for all it’s worth.
How to Ruin Finley
But imagine turning Finley into a feature film. Now the humans would have to be better defined. But why? There is nothing in the plot that requires we know or care about them — other than the fact we have to put up with them for an hour and a half. A feature would almost certainly provide a backstory for Finley, which would make his character less interesting. And now that I think about it, why did those criminals pick this particular house?! There is so much that could be explained!
But Finley is pure. It has one idea. It mines it exquisitely. And it is over. To be frank, I’m shocked they get 25 minutes out of it. It speaks very well of the filmmakers that they get that much time out of this material. But any longer, and the film would suffer.
And this is one of the big reasons that shorts tend to be better than features. Most ideas don’t lend themselves to feature length. And so the ideas need to be expanded. But most ideas don’t lend themselves to expansion. And other things features require (like complex characters) can hurt an impactful story.
What this all means is that you should watch more short films. They will reward you!
J Zachary Thurman
J Zachary Thurman is not a one-trick pony. He has made a handful of excellent short films. They don’t have the broad appeal of Finley, but most will appeal to horror fans:
- Lik Daddy: A heartwarming film about a father teaching his son how to be just like him!
- Don’t Feed the Cat: The granddaughter of a man with dementia comes to put his house in order. He leaves a list of things to do. The last is “Don’t Feed the Cat!” But does she listen?
- The Demon Core: This is a drama about Louis Slotin. It is horrifying! But not horror. It’s also true, even if it romanticizes Slotin and presents him as far less reckless than he actually was. If you liked Oppenheimer, check this one out. It’s excellent!
He’s made other films, but I haven’t seen them. I assume he will eventually be scooped up by TV. Or maybe be given a feature. Or maybe he’ll go into academia. The last seems reasonable because he makes extremely well-crafted films, and I suspect he would be great in an educational environment.
Regardless, check out his films!
Finley (2019) poster via IMDb under Fair Use.