‘CADUCEA’ is the grim fairy-tale you don’t want your kids to see or read at a young age. This short has an impressive amount of mystery combined with the atmosphere of an old folktale told through the voice of a radio anchor at night - yes, the combination is as brilliant as it sounds!
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Christophe Mavroudis‘ 'CADUCEA’ is not a horror movie, however, for some reason, it has some parts that are truly frightening, and for the weak-hearted, those scenes can be easily transformed into nightmare material, all the more so since the film's cinematography adds value to the whole anxious mood.
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The story resides around two brothers, the younger one being the hero whereas the older one the anti-hero. One of them has a normal life, whilst the other struggles with an ongoing pain, hiding his face under a flamboyant mask, and living in the shadow of the life he would dream to have. His dark secret is well hidden inside him, and it’s hard to be decoded by the ones who are not familiar with his pain. The core of all evil is the caducea, an old pendant that came with an ancient curse that took over the owner's body and soul, as the ring did in Tolkien’s ‘Lord of the Rings’ series.
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The real horror factor of this short is the character of Catherine Rossignot, the mother of the two brothers. She is the one who knows all the secrets, being at the same time the higher power that can keep the narrative in place. Catherine Rossignot (played by Marie-Jeanne Maldague) looks like the mother of all evil, the bride of the underworld daemons – she is the one that knows the truth, but refuses to take action. Catherine Rossignot is always in the shadow, always with her face in a deep bright light to boost the horror factor behind her backstory. ‘CADUCEA’ is the modern version of a Greek legend, with a pendant that has a curse and the hard path to get rid of it before it affects many innocent people. Christophe Mavroudis managed to squeeze the most out of a story that didn’t seem as captivating as the short turned out to be!
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Written by Vlad A. G