Death wears a dress and takes her sweet time. You won't breathe for four minutes.
Exploring helplessness, Pyre is an experimental short film which personifies death as a ghoul in a dress, drawing closer and closer until striking.
Sound
Soundscape that enters your body before your brain notices.
Practical Effects
Ghoul design—feminine, patient, unforgettable.
Direction
Burns stretches four minutes into eternity.
Director
Paul Burns
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Burns' 'slow cinema' approach rejects jump scares entirely—fear builds through the unbearable generosity of time given to the viewer to anticipate doom.
The forest spirit/ghoul hybrid draws from European folklore (Baba Yaga, La Llorona) but strips away mythic backstory—this death simply is, no motive, no mercy.
AU
