Short films are fun because they often make for statements of intent: whilst good short films do more than simply act as calling cards, it’s still true that the best of these show something, in terms of style and theme, of what could follow. This is certainly the case with Mr. Clean (2020), an economical short film which blends its own ideas with a sense of the horror canon.
Based loosely on real-life cases, Mr. Clean describes a character whose thing is breaking into people’s homes to deep-clean them – doing so thorough a job, that he leaves no trace of who he is. That’s if anyone would want to complain, anyway. We soon see our Mr. Clean at work, as described by local radio DJ Jess during her show (Sophie Klaesson) – and of course, she can’t resist wishing aloud that he’d come and clean up at her place – but there’s more to this than just harmless eccentricity. It seems that Mr. Clean is so good at what he does because he’s cleaning up more than your usual day-to-day mess…
Mr. Clean (2020) is intended to be the first of three short films, so it doesn’t give away all of its ideas in one go; what we get instead is something which tantalises, rather than tells. The film reserves its energy for some decent practical FX and, via some mooted links to something akin to cosmic horror, an indication of a bigger picture, yet to be revealed. This film certainly does enough to generate interest in this, whilst moving at its quick but suitable pace (using Jess as a narrator as well as a character is a neat move, for instance). At just over six minutes, Mr. Clean shows what it’s possible to do in such a short time frame, and sets its agenda for films to follow. As such it’s a successful and fun project which blends moments of gore with hints of ‘old god’ weirdness.