Jaina Cipriano’s Short Horror Film, You Don’t Have to Take Orders From The Moon, is medication for our most profound and depraved desires. The lead character feeds us her deepest secrets— exposing all the broken parts. We are immediately jolted into her world, and out of our own, through a series of chaotic fits. As she seeks her salvation into existence- and may have found it by the end.

Check the poster down below!

When we first see Cynthia, she is standing in the middle of the road— transfixed by traffic lights, messy and unkempt. She is weighted, there-her face twisted in grief. As she shares her most inner thoughts, it becomes clear she is reeling from an existential crisis— 

“What’s it all for?” She posits. The rest of the film aims to answer that question.

Traffic lights play a huge part in the movie in black and white. We know they exist to create a sense of order, so the swift changes portray her anxiety, disorientation, and listlessness. She wanders throughout the film like a ghost.

When she meets her friend Carol outside her home, you can feel the confusion. Carol suggests Cynthia has been unreachable and distant from those around her. Mirrored against another reality, Cynthia begins to crack, leading her deeper into a spiral.

The dark force looming within the plot directly opposes the film’s use of lights. Cynthia calls it “He” or “Him,” sparring with anonymity. This force promises her everything she’s ever wanted if she does one thing—kill her mother. Throughout the film, we’ve loosely heard how her mom was sick and “He” cured her— making the final scenes especially wrenching.

After killing her mother with a crescent-shaped knife, Cynthia stands high on a cliff— bathed in sunlight and steady in her fractured environment. She is ready to reap her rewards. 

In our final scenes, I appear to be healed. She is in a new place, she is clean, she is smiling, and she is unrepentant. With her mother dead and her slate wiped clean, she waves to “Him” out of the window with gratitude— grateful to be unburdened by connection.

So we ask ourselves, “Is this what it’s all for ?” 

In the cast, we find Madeline Bugeau-Heartt, Rebecca Dooley, and Jodi Hemmer.