THE FURFANGS

A man is alone in his house and contemplates a ring that he must deliver to his beloved. A luminous trail cuts across the sky and a rocket falls from space, embedding itself in the outer wall of his home. From the rocket, small tufts of fur with terrible jaws sneak into our hero's house, who will spend the night fighting the space creatures. Salerno director Andrea Ricca needs little to craft a nice short fantasy-horror (more fantasy than horror, actually): a MiniDv camera, decent 3D graphics software, and a lot of goodwill. That's how "The Furfangs" came to be, a fun and well-made short (just 5 minutes) that pays homage to those B-cult fantasy-horror films that fiercely filled the cinematic market of the mid-1980s, "Critters – The Extraterrestrials" above all, of which the friendly Furfangs are the Italian cousins. Ricca is not new to the Italian indie scene, of which he represents a rare example of a filotechnological variant dedicated to computer graphics effects, since he has already written, directed, and edited "The Guardian" (also reviewed on our pages) and "Ufo Race", but with "The Furfangs" he crafts his most successful work. Narratively, we are not too far from his previous shorts, in which a common man faced an extraordinary situation, and above all, connections can be found with "The Guardian" in showing a struggle for survival between a human and a supernatural being, although this time the mechanics of 'disturbance' change, since in the first film it was the man who awakened the creature and here it is the little monsters that infiltrate the protagonist's home. In its simplicity and linearity, the story is very effective and decidedly rich in rhythm, although not devoid of situations already abundantly portrayed in well-known films (the battle in the kitchen reminds us too evidently of the one seen in "Gremlins"). The quality of the special effects is also of a good level, realized in collaboration with 3D graphic designer Gennaro Acanfora. The little monsters, although in some scenes they seem to come from a cartoon, lacking that 'physical' realism, still manage to integrate quite well with the scene and give life to a series of really fun ideas. Good and constantly evolving is also Ricca's direction, here dedicated to a series of appreciable virtuosity that adds value to the film. A note of merit also goes to the original music by Gianfilippo De Mattia, capable of effectively underscoring a situation constantly balanced between drama and comedy. In the role of the only actor in flesh and blood, we find Andrea Ricca himself, who also appeared as the protagonist in the previous "Ufo Race". In conclusion, "The Furfangs" can be considered an excellent example of Italian indie cinema of pure entertainment made with skill; a nice proof of fantasy-horror with zero budget that pays homage to (or plunders, but the boundary is often tenuous) a type of cinema rarely practiced in our parts. It deserves half a pumpkin more. You can watch "The Furfangs" in full below and on the director's official website, where you can also find his other short films.