MERGER | Omeleto

A man's job takes a turn for the worst when he stays too late one night.
MERGER is used with permission from Daniel Negret. Learn more at imdb.com/name/nm2316201.
A man is sitting at his desk late at night, alone in the high-rise office tower that serves as his workplace. Working hard, he types furiously, utterly committed to his job and ignoring calls from his wife.
All seems ordinary until the man finds himself fielding a strange injury from his keyboard. Ignoring the warning, he keeps working -- only to find himself embroiled in an ordeal of his own making.
Directed and written by Daniel Negret, this vividly realized horror short is a tightly focused, excellently crafted descent into the dark side of office life, where workers feel compelled to put in long hours of their lives at their jobs, enslaved by their computers and chained to their desks. The narrative takes the idea of being tied to one's job to a literal extreme to fascinating and horrifying effect, rendered with meticulous craftsmanship and a confident build-up of suspense.
The character functions here as a kind of "everyman," and we get little information about who he is, though he's played by actor Jonas Tesifa in a precise and deft performance. Instead, the weight of the film's power and meaning is communicated through excellent visuals, whether it's the gleaming noir-like coldness of the office interiors, the almost clinical use of light and shadows or the compositions' emphasis on the worker's isolation and anonymity. We don't know what this company does, but it feels soulless and almost dystopian in its alienation.
Within this milieu, the man works obsessively, typing away at his keyboard. Yet things turn strange quickly when he cuts his finger on one of the keys. It's a puzzling injury, one that he ignores at first. But soon that small, minor injury compounds, and the man finds himself locked in a sudden and surprising life-or-death situation. It's a symbolic one, as his workstation literally threatens to devour him, but the build-up of tension and the high stakes make it visceral for both the worker and the viewer, and the question becomes how far will it all go.
As it turns out, MERGER ends with an eerie, pristinely crafted denouement about the morning after, told from the perspective of a worker more marginal than the man. It's nearly wordless, yet eloquent in its meaning and relatable to anyone who has felt like they've given their blood, sweat and tears for a job to a company. They've given their life force to their work over almost everything else, and in the end, they wonder what it all was for. The ending has an ominous, chilling answer, one that answers unresolved questions but leaves us queasy at its applicability to our own lives.