Death is inevitable. And it’s not too often we can stare it in the eyes and welcome it with open arms. “The End of the Squirrel” is a refreshing, kind of heartbreaking take on the zombie apocalypse, where everything goes wrong and its heroes simply… accept their fates, once and for all. They’ve done everything they could do, and now it’s a matter of how they go out.
A brother and a sister hiding in a barn during the zombie apocalypse have finally been discovered by a horde of zombies. With their barricades slowly going down, they decide to see where the cards fall, and accept the inevitability that they will in fact be torn apart and eaten. Through one last piano solo, they think back to their short time in the barn, and wait for the dead to rush in.
“The End of the Squirrel” is a very good short film that has definite feature film potential (at the very least it deserves to be in a horror anthology). In only eight minutes director Michael Christensen is able to convey a lot of characterization and emphasizes the pair of characters’ dynamic and relationship well. This is also helped by the bang up performances by Jeremy Appel and Katharine Olson, both of whom are very funny in their respective performances.
We get to see a lot of what they did in this seemingly small barn, and while they are terrified, they also know that there will be no miracle, or action packed escape. They will very likely die, and they’re okay with that. Because they pretty much have to be. There’s a lot of great world building in such a short time, and Christensen leaves the ending up in the air, sparing us their ugly demises, and leaving us on a bittersweet note. We didn’t get to know these two nice people for long, but we at least got to know them for a bit.