Vestige is about a boy named Lucas, played by Ben Hackett, who begins to listen to cassette recordings left by his missing father. The recordings lead him to a fossil that could be key in finding his father. It was directed by Joseph Simmons. It was written by Joseph Simmons and Guðni Líndal Benediktsson.

The performances are good. The story follows both Lucas and his grandfather, Samuel. Both characters are given a healthy amount of depth considering the short runtime. There isn’t a ton of dialogue between them, but the moments they share paints them as a loving family despite struggling with a massive tragedy. The dialogue is alright, but many of the best moments happen in the silence between the dialogue.

Vestige is well paced. It uses a lot of warm colors. Those colors create a slice-of-life atmosphere that can easily distract the viewer from the potential danger the unusual fossil represents. It isn’t trying to make you uneasy. It takes the road less traveled and tries to convince you not to be. There are practical and CG effects, and they’re great in both design and execution.

Vestige has a lot in common with the work of Aaron Moorehead and Justin Benson. It lives in a realm of character-first horror/sci-fi experiences that revolve around some form of physical media. It must be a winning formula because it has worked once again. This is worth watching. I only have one bad thing to say about it; it has a very unnecessary jump scare. I judge jump scares on a case by case basis. In this case, it was like if someone won every race they ever participated in but decided to do steroids to give them an edge. Vestige didn’t need it. It was already winning due to the strength of its humanity.