A short about a spooky house and an electronic home assistant gone haywire. Is it bad tech, or something more sinister?
Serving The House of the Devil and The Void vibes, L.U.N.A. gives us pure evil brought into our homes via a machine that pretty much everyone nowadays has. Imagine if your Alexa, Echo, or Apple HomePod was taken over by an evil entity. Couple Jaime and Sarah hire field tech Lilian to check their device because it activates by itself; not only that, but it speaks in another language. When Lilian looks into possible issues, the three are brought deeper and deeper into this old house, completely unaware of the danger they are in.
Right off the bat, the setting is awesome. As I mentioned before, it reminds me of the grandiose home in House of the Devil. Beautiful and mysterious, there are stories long forgotten hidden in the walls, begging for a feature all their own.
The diamond here is the L.U.N.A. device though. A black pyramid with pointed top that lights up blood red when activated, L.U.N.A. is the star of the show. Just as the house begged for attention, I wanted to know every detail about these devices. What kind of people own them? What is the company behind them like? Does the pyramid shape mean something more? Goes to show that even the smallest pieces in a film can be the most intriguing. Same with some of the stylistic choices in editing; there is a shot towards the end where we get a POV from this evil entity lurking in the walls, something I was totally not expecting from a short with a $20,000 budget. One shot can make all the difference, and ingenious editing and transitions can elevate a movie from “OK” to “I need more!”
Oftentimes I find myself struggling to empathize with the characters, whether it be because they don’t fit what I pictured in my head, or their dialog is off, or what-have-you. Here though, all three women — that’s right, the couple is LGBTQ+! — were portrayed well and I liked watching their stories unfold. Inclusivity was definitely at the forefront here, a level of care I appreciate seeing, even as a straight, cis woman. That, plus the use of Spanish as the entity utilizing the L.U.N.A. to speak; it makes total sense considering this movie was made in California and, y’know, the US has a huge Spanish-speaking population. Thing here is that it wasn’t done to pander to any audience in particular and the filmmakers treated them as any other home-owning couple; it also made sense to speak Spanish to a Spanish-speaking technician. Smart way to move the story forward!
Directed, produced, and edited by multi-talented Blake Vaz, L.U.N.A. kept me wanting more, beckoning to me from the dark corners of this Victorian home’s cellar (and kudos to writer Roman Arabia as well for this creative twist on haunted houses). L.U.N.A. is a short 10 minutes that I wish lasted 110 more.
With that, all that’s left to say is, “L.U.N.A., add this short to my favorites list!”
Want more? Visit the L.U.N.A. official site, or check them out in Instagram. Give the trailer a watch, and read more about Valagardo Productions and Green Eggs Go H.A.M.
