Jim Thorpe Independent Film Festival 2024 – Calf, written and directed by Jamie O’Rourke, starts with ominous music and the impending birth of a calf. Something seems sinister on this farm, though it’s unclear what exactly, at least at first.

After that haunting opening sequence, the Irish film shifts to the family. Cáit (Isabelle Connolly), the daughter, soon discovers her father (Stephen Hogan) impaled on a tractor. It’s quite a gruesome and surprising scene, and her reaction to it is baffling. Who or what caused the accident is unclear. Is there a supernatural and evil presence on the farm, as the opening alludes to? O’Rourke gives no easy answers at first and slowly unravels the story. The mystery warrants both attention and patience from the audience.

Cáit doesn’t initially tell her mother, Aine (Kate Nic Chonaonaigh), about dad’s bloody fate. Again, the reasons for this aren’t clear at first, but answers do eventually arrive. That’s a credit to the short’s pacing, which takes its time building mood and atmosphere. Throughout the runtime, the creep factor established from the beginning doesn’t abate. The farm feels like a character, with something malicious lurking in the shadows. This is reinforced through the hair-raising score and the birth of the calf lingering over nearly the entire runtime. It all feels like a bad omen.

While the narrative may seem muddled at first, at least Cáit’s’s odd response to her father’s death, O’Rourke provides some answers in the closing minute, which tells a larger story than what’s actually presented in the short. Overall, Calf is a disquieting film with its share of unsettling moments.

7 Out of 10