Wickmore’s Afraid of the Dark is a 3D-animated, independently produced short film (WIP) which follows a young, sentient candle boy attempting to make his escape from a haunted house. Wickmore finds himself thrust into an unknown environment, in which the only outlet for making sense of his surroundings is the light emanating from the top of his head. In this way, darkness takes on the role of a silent presence, both following and retreating as our waxy protagonist makes his way through the decrepit building and a variety of undead personalities plot to keep him there.

My focus in storytelling is always crafting characters that feel as though they exist in their own world, and the personalities of Wickmore’s Afraid of the Dark are no different. While the ghosts are certainly there primarily to frighten Wickmore and move the story along, they each have distinct roles to play, whether it be The Siren reluctantly luring the candle boy further into the house or The Chef serving as an undoubtedly dangerous force driving him into The Host’s seemingly hospitable clutches. Most notably, The Host plays the complicated role of being both Wickmore’s only ally within the house and the central villain of the story. This role is mirrored by the character’s own fascination with the relationship between light and dark, as well as the house itself, which initially serves as a necessary shelter to Wickmore, but quickly becomes his prison. Once The Host’s farce is stripped away, so is the darkness — as the story comes to a head in the ghost’s candle-filled study. This moment not only symbolizes Wickmore’s realization, but also flips the trope that the film had relied on up to this point on its head: the dark isn’t always what you have to be afraid of.

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