Bad presidents may leave (hopefully) and effective vaccines may arrive (eventually), but there’s not a ton of hope regarding the horrific effects of climate change. Shot in 2019 but filled with eerily prophetic themes, short film Inoculation updates the eco-horror genre with a realistic yet dread-filled story.
Inoculation—which premiered via Film Shortage and was written, produced, and directed by Andrew Harrell and Patrick Nichols—frames its looming disaster through the eyes of a married couple: environmental toxicologist Joshua (Scott Swayze) and his wife, Jackie (Kiersten Armstrong), who has a feeling her husband is creeping into doomsday-paranoia territory. And he is up to something...the film’s title is a clue.
In their statement on Film Shortage, the directors noted they were inspired by “pessimistic outlooks on climate change; the stages of grief; and how global threats outside of our control corrupt our ability to be rational and connect with each other.” For Inoculation’s characters, the menace is vague and the outcome is uncertain, but the uneasy mood sure feels awfully familiar.
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