Ivan Kander

The comedy/horror sub-genre is an interesting beast. Many attempt to conquer it, but few, in reality, ever really do. Films like Evil Dead II and Shaun of the Dead are the exception, not the norm. And, in the short form, this magical alchemy of “funny scary” can be even more elusive to capture.

Rolling in from stage left is James Feeney’s Killer Kart—a short film about a murderous shopping cart. Yes, that’s right, a murderous shopping cart. See, you’re smiling already, aren’t you?

Now, I suppose we’ve seen inanimate on-screen killers before (Quentin Depieux’s Rubber comes to mind). But, Feeney’s film isn’t aiming to be some surreal meditation on death. Rather, this is a campy 80s-inspired horror film through and through: the killer’s goal is simple, our victims scream a lot. Much like the classic Short of the Week pick, Treevenge, Feeney is after the visceral thrills of the genre (and all the gory clichés that come with them).  Killer Kart isn’t going to reinvent the wheel (you know, that one bad one up front that keeps turning to the left), but heck, it’s a fun, blood-covered journey supplemented with creative deaths and two likable protagonists.

Killer Kart holds the distinction of being the most successful film in the history of the Florida State University Film School, winning 37 awards and attending 79 festivals worldwide. Not bad for a premise that is inherently “b-movie.” I suppose it just goes to show you that not all successful “film school” films need to be moody introspective pieces featuring people smoking in black and white.

In the end, Killer Kart isn’t really all that terrifying—it’s more fun than legitimately scary—but, hey, it gets you just enough on a visceral level to make you look at shopping carts a wee bit differently next time you head out to the supermarket. Clean-up, most definitely, on aisle 12.

To keep up to date with what Mr. Feeney has in store for us next, be sure to like the film on facebook.