Room Service

Room Service is a short film about a luxurious hotel whose room service is notably lacking. Five characters, a supersized creature and a staging in a luxurious hotel compose this great short produced by students from French school MOPA.

An emphasis is placed on environment and character design, the effort dedicated to creating the hotel’s various locations as well as the characters is impressive. The stories presented in Room Service are weaved through the sound introduced by the piano tuner, which starts as on-screen sound and transitions back and forth as off-screen and on-screen sound. Combined with the non-diegetic music they help create a disturbing atmosphere.

The film uses static cameras only, which help contribute to the stagnant ambience of the hotel. Visual rhythm is introduced mostly through editing: parallel editing is used to alternate between the characters’ situations and to build the progressions towards the converging end.

Also worth noting are the effective use of off-screen space to suggest the presence of the spider creature, transmitting an increasing impression of danger, the quality work on the stylized aesthetic, the use of wide shots with spacious environments to portray characters in isolation, and the abundant humor for describing the characters’ uncomfortable situations, which helps spice up the story.

Although Room Service uses various elements from the horror genre, it seems more aimed at amusing than scaring the audience. In this light it may perhaps be better classified as a fantasy film than a horror one.