Let the Myth Be, from Carrington Walsh, is an interesting and wonderfully tension-filled supernatural thriller that keeps you guessing, as it asks its protagonist whether she should trust her own instincts.

Lauren (Ashley LaLonde) is researching her thesis in folklore and mythology when she begins to fear that she has accidentally awoken a monster who appears to be after her. With the help of her friend Freddie (D.B. Milliken), she heads to a rural retreat to figure out how to kill it before it kills her.

One of the strengths of Let the Myth Be is the question it poses to its audience: Is this all really happening to Lauren, or is she so deeply immersed in her research and so desperate for it all to be real that she is imagining it? It’s a fun question and one that Walsh has a lot of fun with in the short time we have with it.

Playing off the tried and tested “hysterical woman” trope, we are given so much to counter that not only is Lauren not hysterical (until actual spooky and disturbing things begin to happen to her), but she is also an academic. Someone who is prone to finding the reason why and not just going off the handle emotionally. It is quite easy to believe her, yet with Let The Myth Be having only one other character, a white male, in comparison to Lauren’s black female, we feel that stereotypical doubt rises up within the story as Freddie seriously doubts Lauren’s tales. After all, she is in a rural area, where animals make all sorts of sounds and hijinks at night. Couple that with Lauren’s research, of course, she is going to be a little spooked! But like a good friend, Freddie will stay over for the night to reassure his daft friend, and then that is where Walsh amps up the tension in the final act.

With a gorgeous location that becomes typically unsettling at night, Asia Lí Jones crafts some stunning shots, especially of the red barn, causing the audience to scour the screen for something, anything that could be moving. That tactic by Walsh, to leave a bit of extra empty space around our characters, allows our eyes to wander. Will we see the beginnings of something just there in the background? With shorts like Let the Myth Be, it can be difficult to build that tension due to the runtime, but Walsh has no issues with that as she gives us all the reasons to be unsettled.

While the final sequence is somewhat predictable from a story standpoint, the last couple of seconds are unnecessary. (If it had ended just a few seconds earlier, it would have been a really creepy ending.) It remains effective due to the performances of our two leads, as well as the buildup of watching Lauren lose her composure over what is happening to her. Let the Myth Be is a thriller that does almost everything right, making it a short that fills you with intrigue.

★★★ 1/2

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