Maelström is the first collaboration between UnderGlass Productions and S&H Films. The short, written and directed by S&H’s co-owner Henry Fish, focuses on Abigail as she recounts a troubling nightmare to her husband, Rupert, on their fortieth anniversary. The film flits between the present day café where the couple celebrate and the grey-skyed beach that serves as the location of Gail’s harrowing dream. Maelström masterfully blurs the boundaries between her memory and her nightmare, leaving the viewer to untangle the truth of Gail’s past.

Fish’s penchant for horror has been seen throughout his oeuvre, with the release of Soup in 2021 to the world premiere of Polymorphia in 2024. And while the style of horror varies from project to project, Maelström immerses the viewer into an eerie ghost story. Fish, inspired by the work of M. R. James, utilises the unpredictability of the natural environment to emphasise the fractured mindset of this film’s protagonist.

Michael Scanlon, co-owner of UnderGlass, took on the roles of producer and director of photography. Scanlon’s cinematography is striking, transporting the viewer from the warm comfort of a small café to the barren British coastline save for the mysterious figure that beckons a young Gail in her present-day nightmare. The framing of Maelström brings to life Fish’s vision, reminiscent of adaptations of M. R. James filmed in East Anglia, a coastline he is very familiar with.

The cinematography is not solely responsible for effectively capturing this haunting environment in such a small amount of time. The sound design by Louis Chiffe subtly yet successfully draws the viewer into Gail’s nightmarish vision; the ambient sounds of the café are interrupted by breaking waves as they consume her consciousness, and the foreboding score does well to merge her dream with the present moment. A spotlight must also be given to Olivia Franklin’s make-up design. Her spectacular work becomes most evident towards the end of the film as Gail’s disturbances become physical manifestations, transforming this ghost story into something more threatening.

The performances of Sara Wilson-Soppitt and Flora Blissett, as Abigail and her younger counterpart respectively, excellently convey the character’s anxiety as one recounts the nightmare and the other enacts it, both of which encounter the unexpected by the end of the film. And the older Rupert, played gently by Stephen Riddle, is greatly contrasted by younger Rupert, played by Harry Michael Sanders.

All in all, Maelström is a strong collaboration between two groups of emerging yet already-successful creatives at UnderGlass Productions and S&H Films. Every member of this production performs their role to the highest of standards.

Maelström is a triumph that needs viewing at least twice in order to piece together Gail’s guilt-ridden nightmare.

If you’d like to check out Maelström for yourself, here’s the link to the Screening Event: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScTiY6tcH1CQQND1xDWLzlvxX13qlm4w3qOFOmyqE9z1TZFYw/viewform