JohnDoe Productions teamed with writer/director Vincent Julé to celebrate Halloween by releasing a short film for free on digital platforms "as a Halloween candy of sorts, for every thrill and chill lover to enjoy". That short is BIENVENUE, and you can check it out in the embed above.
Described as being in the vein of MAMA and LIGHTS OUT, BIENVENUE has the following synopsis:
A couple has booked an apartment for one night. It looks just like the ad, but their attention is drawn to something. Or someone? Watch this (and watch out) before your next vacation!
In French with English subtitles, the short has a running time that comes in at just under 4 minutes, and those minutes are packed with creepy weirdness.
Julé had this to say about BIENVENUE:
Just like the short films MAMA by Argentinian director Andrés Muschietti and LIGHTS OUT by Swedish director David F. Sandberg, I’ve challenged myself and wanted to try to frighten the audience in a very short time. Less than 5 minutes. This is how BIENVENUE, an effective and straightforward short film came to be. The idea came to me when I actually booked an Airbnb. You enter an empty place that belongs to someone else; you have to make your marks… This experience was offering me a way to revisit the haunted house genre. After all, haven't we all feared things might go wrong when booking an Airbnb?
This story was also an opportunity to tackle the not-so-common figure of the evil child, like in THE OMEN or VILLAGE OF THE DAMNED. Of course, you’d be surprised to find a child in an Airbnb, you would not understand… Would you feel empathy? These very ingredients allowed me to go for a more original and insidious take on fear itself."
Produced by Arié Chamouni, the short stars Juliette Allain, Quentin Pradelle, and Gaël Raës.