Disco Inferno



In a catholic church in the 1950s, a nun sits in the confessional booth asking for forgiveness for killing a mother because she wanted to steal her child. The other side of the booth is empty, however, so no forgiveness is bestowed. Overcome with grief, the nun leaves the child at the altar and hangs herself at the other end of the nave.

After the incident the church closed its doors, and some 20-odd-years later the building has been repurposed as the city’s hottest new disco joint. And tonight they’re holding a dancing competition to crown the town’s most talented couple. But partner’s Mel and Brandon are about to find out the hard way that even though memories fade, sometimes the ghost of evil still lingers.



Disco Inferno is a 19-minute long short film from 2023. I vaguely remember some people mentioning this around the interwebs not long after it came out, put it on my watch-list, and then promptly forgot about it, because that’s just how I roll. Anywhooo…most of them were pretty complementary about it from what I can recall. But after watching it I’m afraid to report that it’s…fine. Though I wasn’t all that impressed by it. But it does have a couple points in its favor.



For starters, the movie looks really, really good. I mean, this is an absolutely beautiful little film. The costumes are sharp and varied. The cinematography was carefully thought out. The colors are striking. The choreography is fluid… It really is a gorgeous and well designed little film that obviously had a lot of heart and effort put into all of its visuals. Very Dario Argento-ish, if I had to pick an aesthetic. So at the very least it’s very pleasing to look at.





I also thought that the basic story was pretty good. You’ve got a troubled nun, a town secret, a haunted building, a couple who are suffering from their own personal hang-ups, so they feel like real, fleshed-out people, and they have to deal with a ghost. So, it’s pretty basic perhaps, but also thought out enough that it’s easy to follow.

The downside though (other than that there is absolutely no fire in a movie partially titled Inferno…), is that it also feels like there’s just not enough story here to chew on, either. I know, I know. This is a short film. There’s not supposed to be too much depth. But this one really feels like it left out some particularly annoying gaps in its plot. The whole backstory with the nun and her obsessions, for example, feels like it could have easily filled up an entire movie unto itself. So it almost feels like you’re watching a sequel to something that you’ve never seen the first film of, and have just been thrust into the story midway. And then ultimately the film just sort of…ends, unfortunately. Like, there isn’t actually any kind of proper conclusion. The ghost hasn’t been vanquished, Brandon never addresses his confidence issues…You get nothing! Hell, we never even get to see the end of the disco competition! Who won?!? We’ll never know, I guess! Not that I necessarily believe that a whole lot of people watching this would really care all that much about dancing competitions or disco in general (unless perhaps they’re big Dancing with the Stars fans), but damn film, you could have at least let me see a proper end to SOMETHING in this movie.



Overall though, Disco Inferno is a fine enough short, I suppose. But I do think it kinda feels more like some kind of proof of concept for a bigger project, then it does a proper short film. Or maybe even a really short (non-historically accurate) love letter to the 70s. Then again, maybe wanting more of it could be viewed as a complement. Who knows. At least it’s decently acted and nice to look at, so I can’t say it was a total waste of time. But it’s not all that great either, what with the tropes, jump scares and the rather predictable plot line. If you like shorts and have about 20 minutes to kill, you could do worse than this…but you could also do a lot better, too.

Disco Inferno is available to stream on Netflix.

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