In the plethora of Quarantine Films we have reviewed during the pandemic, “Deadly C” must be one of the weirdest, particularly in the way it tries to caution people about not following the instructions of the authorities regarding the pandemic.
Shot inside an apartment with a smartphone by Ashish Bisht himself, the narrative is set as a home invasion movie, for a sleeping victim who is woken up by a strange man pulling the sheets, before he places himself in the kitchen. With his terrifying appearance, courtesy of the various close ups, his intense, occasionally loud voice, and his sinister laugh, the “invader” proceeds on chastising his victim for not following the instructions of the authorities regarding personal hygiene and social distancing. “People who have not visited other neighborhoods now want to visit the whole world” he utters at some point, right before he is revealed as the personification of the virus himself. Yet eventually the one whose house was invaded finds the cure to scare the intruder off, in another message regarding the pandemic.
More like a recorded performance that an actual film, “Deadly C” has its good moment during the theatrics of Ashish Bisht, who truly manages to communicate a sense that something bad is going to happen. On the other hand, the short suffers when he tries to show that there is another person there, and by a technical glitch, that has two different subtitles on screen at the same time, hiding a large part of the action.
On the other hand, the messages are quite well communicated, with the virus also highlighting a fact rarely mentioned, of how useless are weapons and the armies of various countries against this disease.
Considering the limitation of the 5-minute short, the result is interesting to say the least, while Ashish Bisht seems to have a future as an actor. We will have to see more extensive samples of him to “judge” him as a director though.
