Review: Short film ‘Girls Night In’ guts the Bechdel test

The Bechdel Test was first introduced in a 1985 comic strip from artist Alison Bechdel. Titled “The Rule,” as part of an ongoing saga Dykes to Watch Out For, the story follows two women as they discuss and lay out the rules by which a piece of media can be judged. They’re quite simple: it has at least two women, they interact, and they talk about something other than a man.

Since its release, nearly 40 years ago, films have been held against these parameters as a way to level the playing field for characters and filmmakers who are not cis men. When it comes to short horror film, Girls Night In, director Alison Roberto cues up an epic disembowelment of the Bechdel Test, primarily as a way to showcase how ludicrous it is that we have to have such a litmus test in the first place. With a script written by Landon LaRue, the low-scale slasher flick is heavy on saturated colors, pin-prick commentary, and the bond between two strong women.

Girls Night In opens as many home invasion-influenced slashers do. A girl home alone hears strange noises she mistakes for a friend. There’s a jump scare fake-out, a mood-setting genre trope to lure the viewers further into the bloody web. Then, there’s a few scenes with the leads to endear us to their corner of the world before the well-earned bloodletting. In this case, Becca (Jess Adams) invites her BFF Delaney (Skylar Benton) over for pizza and wine. They gab about work and Delany’s potential new love interest, a sort of, almost doctor type. The killer, played by Brian Henderson, who also tackled cinematography with collaborator Sébastien Paquet, wastes no time. Dressed head to toe all in black with his selection of creepy mask, the killer swings a baseball bat riddled with nails and exudes an imposing presence.

Clocking in at under 10 minutes, Girls Night In is not what you expect. What begins as your typical, meta-slasher soon morphs into a canine-sharp thesis on the Bechdel Test and the treatment of women in fiction. It’s doused in bright neon hues to give the piece an almost hypnotic, dreamy quality. Benton and Adams burst with a magnetizing chemistry and dynamism. It’s not wonder the short premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival last month. This won’t be the last you see of Alberto and LaRue’s impressive creation. It’s just the beginning.

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