Lucas, a wheelchair bound, mute teenager is having trouble focusing on his studies due to his daily confrontations with a gothic style entity. His grades are slipping, his teachers and parents are quickly losing patience, and he risks losing what little he does have if he can’t escape the visions in his mind.
Apothecary’s Cage has a run time of just over 17 minutes. Although it’s difficult to tell a story in such a small amount of time, I feel as though the story line benefits from the time restraints. It forces the characters and narratives to work quicker thus giving us more action and less screen filler.
The main character Lucas is someone we can all identify with as a teenager. He prefers to live in his head, his own form of reality. He’s very artistic and isn’t at all interested in academics. His parents are very strict have very high expectations of their son which leads them to go to extreme measures. It's also worth noting that Crypt Teaze writer Chase Will also has a small role in the film!
There are some really beautiful scenes in the short. I loved the costumes and how well they played into the story line. The music matched each scene perfectly and really helped bring the characters to life.
I give Apothecary’s Cage a solid 9 out of 10. There’s really nothing I disliked about this story. I think they made perfect use of their time and resources. I highly suggest watching this short if you’re a fan of artistic expression.