A couple is bombarded by hyperactive neighbors when they move to a suburb.


CUL-DE-SAC is used with permission from Francesco Gabriele. Learn more at   / fra_gab  .


Steven and Bonnie have left the city to move to a leafy, quieter suburb. Steven misses the city, but Bonnie is ready for a slower-paced, calmer life. But her hopes for a more idyllic existence are disrupted when the couple meets their new neighbors.

The neighbors are an odd group: they dress in bright workout clothes, power-walk around the neighborhood together and speak in relentless cheerful and positive voices. They're also eager for Steve and Bonnie to try their strange wellness products, which they promise will inject a new level of health and energy into their lives -- but may prove more than they bargained for.

Directed by Francesco Gabriele and written by Brandi Self, this offbeat comedy-horror short sends up suburban life, MLMs, pyramid schemes and the cult of wellness, offering a "fish out of water" perspective as a pair of former city dwellers acclimate to their new environment. Told with deft visual storytelling and brisk pacing, the narrative wastes no time clashing the skeptical couple with the gun-go neighbors, opening with a scene of them meeting right at the top. Right away, both the viewers and the couple discover that the neighbors are an eccentric group, and the humor seems to fall on the goofy, broad side of the spectrum.

The oddball tone and splashes of goofiness set up expectations for a kind of culture clash farce or satire, but the writing cleverly subverts this expectation, especially as the neighbors begin to insinuate themselves into Steven and Bonnie. The neighbors are eager to get the pair to try some strange energy products. Neither Steven nor Bonnie is keen at first, but when Steven ends up sampling one, he finds himself drawn into the neighbors' group, complete with an obnoxiously bright workout outfit and fanny pack.

The transformation of a sophisticated, bookish Steven into his new incarnation is funny, and actor Tom Cox handles the shift with comic aplomb and just the right note of ominousness. His transformation also throws his wife for a loop. Alarmed and suspicious, Bonnie -- adroitly played by actor Nina Mahdavi with an emotionally grounded skepticism -- tries to discover just what's behind the neighbors and their mysterious wellness products.

Her search for answers helps propel CUL-DE-SAC into darker, more sinister terrain, making for an entertaining, alarmingly memorable viewing experience and a quietly horrific ending. Funny and ultimately outlandish, it also might prove the ultimate lesson in never trusting something that seems too good to be true -- or a neighbor hawking a "miracle" product.