In Theaters and Digital

“Doctors say there’s still a chance.  Come home.”

Shed is a film in which the humidity and the heat seen on the screen is actually felt by its audience.  The thriller never dips in quality either, opening with a curious scene involving a radio newscast, an escaped convict, and a mysterious phone message before surrendering to the sun-baked hues on the side of a desolate stretch of road somewhere in Perth, Australia, complete with tires spinning and rocks being kicked up.

Something is being communicated here in Shed’s opening minutes.  Pay attention.  The labored breath is only going to get heavier as Mia (portrayed perfectly by Mani Shanks), the lone survivor of a violent home invasion, is left completely on her own to try and survive The Stranger (Jason Robert Lester).

Hell, it is a mere 7-minutes into this thriller and Mihaljevich is already threading up the tension, snaking it into the picture as a home invasion goes psychotic pretty damn fast. 

Director of Photography Shane Piggott’s steely-eyed camera is already working overtime to create a sense of dread as a crazed prison escapee starts hammering away at a family’s front door.   On the other side of the door is Jayden, a young boy who can merely watch in terror.  Much like us!

The guts and the grit; oh, I have missed filmmaker Steven J. Mihaljevich (The Xrossing, Violett) twisted knack for visual storytelling.  The artist just gets better and better as a director, producing top-notch films which are thought-provoking and disturbing at the same time.  His films - all being labors of love - are poignant, atmospheric, and beautifully crafted; bringing more heart than you’d expect when it comes to the twisted genres he’s keen on exploring.  Each one has been a bit more disturbed than the previous one and, yet, they are also all the more poetic, too.

His latest offering, Shed, is no different.  In fact, it is even better than his last outing, bringing audiences closer into the action as one family is murdered on Christmas Eve and the sole survivor, a little girl, is left inside a shed to try and figure out what has happened.  With a single location and a limited view through the cracks in the tiny building, Shed becomes her story.

And Mihaljevich absolutely nails it with scenes which are pure white-knuckled tension as this 12-year-old struggles to make sense of what has happened while being trapped in the shed. 

Shed is unapologetic in its depiction of violence.  Know that going in and you will be one step closer to understanding the bleak terrain of this sand and sun-blasted thriller from Playtime Motion Pictures. 

MPAA Rating: Unrated.
Runtime: 83 mins
Director: Steven J. Mihaljevich
Writer: Steven J. Mihaljevich
Cast: John Jarratt; Mani Shanks; Jason Robert Lester
Genre: Thriller
Tagline: The Way to Survive
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Distributor: Playtime Motion Pictures
Official Site:
Release Date: 
DVD/Blu-ray Release Date:
Synopsis: Mia, a courageous 10 year old girl who is locked in a shed, must survive inconceivable odds whilst trying to discover what happened to her family.