In Crossbow the spoiler is right in front of you, there in the title. A crossbow is an anachronistic device and does not, at least in my mind, lend itself well to analogy or metaphor. In spite, or, more accurately, precisely because this ominous title hangs over the very start of viewing, the short film remarkably sustains a growing dread throughout its languid narration and slow-moving, though arresting visuals; maximizing its force not through the promise of surprise but through the inevitability of its conclusion.

The Young One
1960
7.0/10

The Trigger Effect
1996
5.8/10

Light It Up
1999
6.6/10

My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done
2010
6.1/10

Amber Alert
2024
7.1/10

Salomé
2013
6.2/10

The Color of Friendship
2000
6.7/10

Eleanor the Great
2025
6.9/10

Sovereign
2025
6.6/10

Come Sunday
2018
5.8/10

Girl in the Bunker
2018
7.1/10

September
1987
6.2/10

First Snow
2006
6.1/10

Guilty by Suspicion
1991
6.5/10

Prisoners
2013
8.1/10

Marked for Death
1990
6.1/10

What Maisie Knew
2013
7.1/10

Adopt a Highway
2019
6.7/10

The Good Neighbor
2022
6.6/10

Hungry Hearts
2015
6.5/10
The Ice Storm
1997
6.88/10