Two friends travel towards an unknown destination and during their trip one of the passengers begins a game with the other. Starting with a concept of a woman receiving a parcel which will lead to her death, it comes up to the other passenger to guess how her demise came about, through ‘yes', ‘no', or ‘maybe' responses. Unbeknownst to the man trying to unravel the mystery, they are heading towards a theater performance with a macabre reveal.
The most notable strength of “parcel” lies within it's visual presentation. The film is sleek through its transitional shots, framing, and lighting. The score also flows nicely with the visuals, complimenting the atmosphere of a ‘murder/mystery'. Overall, the visuals are engaging and display a well thought out flow to best compliment the intended format.
Despite having abundant style, the production does fail within the execution of a few key elements. Firstly, the final plot twist brings out more of an air of disbelief than the intended shock. To avoid spoilers through vague critique, it is pretty implausible that professional performers would make a grave error off of a slight alteration. The delivery of dialogue is also a hindrance, with the conversation between the two friends feeling entirely unnatural, and although this is geared towards the pace of the mystery unfolding, it creates an odd (unintended) sexual tension between the two male leads. This boils down to the hushed tones and pauses in between words, that feel more akin to an erotic scene. Regardless, the way the friends talk to each other only exists within cinema, but requires to be approached with more tact to be taken seriously, which unfortunately “Parcel” does not have.
At just over eight minutes, it is hard to be too critical of the production for its perceived flaws, especially when the presentation and score are so well handled. Unfortunately, I could not get over the cheesy delivery of dialogue, and was unable take the ending at face value without applying real world logic. I really did not enjoy my time with “Parcel”, but it is not without its merits, and is still worth a watch for people to draw their own conclusions.
