Pickles Is Dead is a short British comedy that, at around six and a half minutes, sets itself the difficult task of creating a complete and entertaining story within a very limited running time. Its premise is deliberately dark and centres on the death of a cat, but the death itself is not inherently funny. The comedy has to come from the characters, their reactions and the increasingly awkward or absurd circumstances surrounding the event.
The film's greatest strength is its brevity. It gets to its central idea quickly and doesn't waste time with unnecessary scenes or subplots. There is a clear attempt to find humour in an uncomfortable situation, using the contrast between what we would normally consider a sad event and the characters' behaviour. This gives the film an awkward, dark-comedy tone.
However, I found the comedy somewhat uneven. The basic premise creates an opportunity for humour, but simply putting a tragic event into a comic situation doesn't automatically make it funny. For dark comedy to really work, the reactions and dialogue need to be sufficiently unexpected, clever or absurd to overcome the seriousness of the subject. At times, Pickles Is Dead comes close to achieving this, but I didn't find enough of the situations genuinely funny to consider it a particularly strong comedy.
The short running time is both an advantage and a disadvantage. It prevents the film from becoming repetitive, but it also means there is little opportunity for the characters to develop or for the comedy to build towards a really strong payoff. The film therefore feels closer to an extended comedy sketch than a fully developed short film.
There is certainly something appealing about its willingness to use an uncomfortable subject for comic purposes. Dark humour can be very effective precisely because it challenges our expectations about how we are supposed to react. But for me, the film doesn't consistently turn that discomfort into laughter. The idea is perhaps more amusing than some of the individual jokes.
Overall, Pickles Is Dead is an inventive and reasonably entertaining short, with a quirky premise and a willingness to experiment with dark comedy. It is concise and doesn't outstay its welcome, but I think the comedy could have been sharper and the characters and situations developed further. Most importantly, the film demonstrates that the death of a cat isn't itself funny; what matters is what the filmmakers do with the situation afterwards.
Comedy: 6/10
