Short Film review | 'Poison' by Wes Anderson (2023)

'Poison' by Wes Anderson is a short film released as part of an anthology in 2023. The short is based off of the story written by Road Dahl in the 1950s. 

The narrative follows protagonist Harry Pope, who is trapped in bed under the weight of a poisonous snake, Harrys friend Timber Wood, breaks the fourth wall within the production to narrate the story to the viewer. 

In the beginning of the production Timber enters Harrys house to find him lying on his bed, eyes wide open and unable to move, The interaction between Timber and Harry conveys to the audience that Harry has a poisonous snake asleep on his stomach, rendering him unable to move or speak; the snake being used as a catalyst for the action of the story. 

Timber seeks to find a resolution for Harry, but soon finds he needs assistance so calls upon Dr Ganderbai to assist in removing the snake and, hopefully, saving Harrys life. The trio seek to resolve the issue with the snake by soaking Harrys mattress in chloroform in hopes to anethesize the snake and remove it, which as the audience we expect to bring a positive resolution to the situation, however the ending results in no clear resolution to the narrative, as Timber and Dr Ganderbai go to remove the sheets to reveal the snake, we find that there is no snake at all, leading Dr Ganderbai to question where Harry had dreamt it or if the snake had moved during the removal of the sheets. 

The confusing nature of this story helped me in development for my script ideas, as it shows that as long as a story has a strong protagonist, narration, and plot line and is written in a clear concise way, the audience will inevitably connect with the story. 

The ending of the short particularly has influenced the writing process of my script as I worried that having an open ending would leave an audience disconnected from the story, but with this particular narrative I feel it has done the opposite, the open ending has lead me to question the story and analyse the possible endings. 

Bibliography

Anderson,W. 2023 'Poison' Available at: Netflix

Accessed November 2023