Rob Munday

When it comes to on-screen deaths, the ones that often grab the most attention are the gruesome ones – from John Hurt’s dinner-disrupting scene in Alien to Robert Shaw’s violent end in Jaws, these are moments etched into cinematic history. But some of the most affecting deaths aren’t drenched in blood – they’re the ones that feel painfully real. With that in mind, I’ll go out on a limb and say the death at the heart of Tore Frandsen’s short A Waste of Life is among the most haunting and authentic I’ve ever seen on film.

If revealing the death of the main character in A Waste of Life feels like a spoiler, don’t worry – knowing what’s coming doesn’t lessen the film’s impact. The power isn’t in the fact that he dies, but in how he goes out. Unlike cinematic deaths on battlefields or in outer space, which can feel distant or unreal, this one unfolds in an ordinary hotel bathroom – and it could very well happen to any of us.

Darren Pettie stars as Sebastian in A Waste of Life.

With its stripped-down premise and slow, inevitable slide toward death, Frandsen’s film brought to mind another popular S/W pick – Tom Egan’s horror short Curve. While Egan leans into the fantastical, trapping his protagonist on a sheer, alien drop, both films share an immersive quality: they place the viewer squarely in the situation, forcing you to imagine what you would do. The comments on YouTube for Curve are filled with escape strategies – rock climbers, in particular, saw it as no problem. While I doubt A Waste of Life would spark quite as many how-to debates, it’s still the kind of story that makes you picture yourself in that same, unthinkable position.

And that’s undoubtedly where the film’s true power lies – in the authenticity and unsettling relatability of its premise. As we watch Sebastian lying in the bathtub, the water creeping higher, this isn’t alien horror but an everyday nightmare. It’s a moment that turns inward, forcing reflection. We’ve all seen films that make us imagine what it would be like to die that way – but ask yourself: what’s worse? A sudden bullet to the head, or slowly slipping away, naked and alone in a tub?

I think we all know the answer to that!