A fabulous little black comedy about pets and death and life lessons…narrated by Lance Henriksen.
“He saw something strange in the black wells of the hamster’s eyes. He could not say why, but he felt that the Hamster had been called to a terrible purpose. It seemed determined to carry out some great and symbolic act, though its exact nature remained a mystery to him.”
Those utterances from the gravelly growl of Lance Henriksen underlie the foundation of this little film. That hamster was plotting to teach some life and death lessons! Yes, the hamster would have its revenge! OK, full admission… this isn’t REALLY a horror film. It’s barely even horror adjacent, but it wears the cloak of an Edgar Allen Poe tale of the inevitability of death, by way of pet store existentialism.
THE HAMSTER from Ryan Barger on Vimeo.
The Hamster is a black comedy short by Ryan Barger, who also stars as the father in the film, along with Aaralyn Anderson, who plays his daughter. Ryan is a friend of the Scariest Things, and I’ll be honest… he’s family. His wife is my cousin, Katie Akana, who for years had been the production designer on Saturday Night Live, and is also the production designer for The Hamster. So… hooray, Nepotism! My site, my choices! HA! But this isn’t JUST a whim, Ryan is also the EMMY WINNING editor of the political news/comedy HBO production Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, so he’s totally legit and hella funny. (And he knows his horror as well.)
For a more goofy outrageous take, and an outright silly pet-centric production, I will direct you to one of Ryan’s other projects: White Ppl LUV Lawyers, a mashup of Thrash punk and the AKC Westminster Championship dog show!
We now return you back to our normal Scariest content… thanks for allowing this little side trip.