Mother nature is very unforgiving in The Birch

A terrifying monster with a surprising attitude for its victims

Mario Escoto
Staff Writer

In the middle of the forest, human beings are always surrounded by tall trees, grass, animals and so on. But, what if the forest can protect you from bullying?

Well, if you have a good heart, the Birch will protect you and get rid of those nasty bullies.

The birch is a humanoid creature with a female like a body, horizontal like hair filled with tree roots and leaves. Also, the creature’s body is entirely made of wood including its teeth.

But the scary part about this creature has to do with its height and fingers. Taller than an average human being and nails made of hard brown vines. Whoever designed the creature made it a beautiful, yet a terrifying creature to watch.

“For he who makest me, I shall come. He who breaks me shall come undone,” Birch said. In the film, the Birch, a young man is wandering in the forest looking for the symbol of the Birch. The reason why he is doing this, because his dying grandmother explains to him a story of the Birch and why she will protect him. While he is doing this, a bully he deals with daily is looking for him and wants to hurt him. In one scary scene, the victim pulls out the symbol of the Birch. When the victim did this the bully was confused, but grabbed the symbol and broke it. This part of the film was getting intense and scary. I was hoping for the victim to achieve justice from this aggressive bully; I was right in a fearful way.

Now, that the bully broke the symbol of the Birch, leaves began to blow towards the bully and victim. Then, all sudden the Birch appears and intimidates the bully, causing the bully to run in fear. We are not shown how the bully was killed. On the next scene, we’re shown the bully’s face cut all over, body impaled by tree branches and torn in half. This scene right here was a “WTF” moment. At the end of the scene, we as the audiences are shown the victim and Birch holding hands together. However, as things were getting calm we are shown a jumpscare of the birch face with a loud music effect. I had to close my eyes when I saw the Birch’s face; it was scary and disgusting.

In conclusion, I felt like the director was aiming for a moral lesson in the film. Throughout, the film the victim was punched, harassed and even had a small bruise in his eye. The birch is supposed to represent justices in the forest, however, she can become karma if you break one of her kinds. When you view this film, it is scary at first, but once you see multiple times. It changes the film from a scary film to a heartwarming film for anyone to watch. However, my only complaint is that the film is short, and the bully didn’t feel like a bully. It was more like a sibling fighting with each the other. This short horror film can be seen on YouTube for free.