A recently single choreographer heads up to the cottage with her hungry toddler in tow and you can tell right from the opening shots, and the unnerving score, that they’re headed for trouble.

Directors Justin Harding and Rob Brunner have only 17 minutes with which to tell their tale so I’d rather spoil as little of the plot as possible. I can tell you though that our hero somehow and inadvertently awakens “a vile fairy corpse” and stops at absolutely nothing to protect her son.

Latched’s narrative is fairly straightforward but its content is bizarre and a little unsettling. It packs some truly scary moments into its short running time and at least one really good jump scare. With no time to waste, Harding and Brunner build suspense and develop their characters with each shot. It all makes for some chilling climatic images which, with the help of an impressive performance by Alana Elmer, took me a few minutes to shake off.

Screens (as part of Short Cuts Programme 6):
Sunday, September 10, 9:30 PM, Scotiabank 13
Saturday, September 16, 6:45 PM, Scotiabank 8

Tickets can be purchased at the TIFF website.