Curve: the short heartbreaking film explained

In just ten minutes, without chainsaws or haunted, murderous dolls, Tim Egan’s short thriller film Curve fills us with more dread and apprehension than most horror films. It involves one actor in one location trying to escape a bottomless abyss that will inevitably consume her. 

Curve opens with a woman finding herself trapped on a nearly vertical slope. Brief glimpses of dark waves appear before the film focuses on the woman. The lady, played by Laura Jane Turner, rests on a curve that prevents her from falling into a dark chasm below. A slight miscalculation will indeed send her into the hollow. 

Curve depicts a situation with no hope of recovery

The character in Curve can barely hold onto the slippery concrete surface she lies on. Her awkwardly bent leg gives her the traction she needs to stay on the wall. A survey of the area offers no evident escape roots. 

She decides to escape, but before trying, she notices bloody handprints on the wall opposite her. The prints descend into the dark, indicating that whoever was on the other side fell in. 

Determined to escape a similar fate, she attempts to ease herself higher. She slips, sending her perilously close to the edge. With bloodied fingers and rapidly diminishing hope, she tries and fails again and again and again.

Her task shifts from improbable to impossible when it starts raining. She tries to grip the concrete surface better using a silver chain on her neck, and as she makes a final, desperate attempt to escape, the screen goes black. 

The film closes with a view of the empty wall: though we don’t see the actor slip, they obviously end up in the chasm. 

Curve is a film about situations with no hope of recovery. It may stir up personal memories or make you think of a story where the protagonist had no way to save themselves.