All-New Horror For Kids: “Erax” On Netflix (2022)
Erax: an easy-to-watch, 10-minute, short, family-friendly horror film. It’s cute, filmed well, and straight to the point.
Erax starts off with the sound of an alarm. We hear it going off, but no one is there to hit the snooze button. Then we see a little girl reading a book all by herself.
The girl’s name is Nina (played by child actor Genesis White).
It was Nina’s birthday, but it wasn’t a very happy one. Her auntie came home late and missed the whole damn thing.
Luckily this house is a family of nerds, and Auntie Opal knows just the gift her little girl needs: a giant, dusty tome about ten times fatter than the King James bible. She slams this “one-of-a-kind collector’s edition book” on the table and says “happy birthday baby.”
But the book has strange stories inside. Nina starts reading one about a girl named Nina whose Aunt forgot her birthday. Auntie Opal thinks her little girl is just being snarky, so she picks up the book.
But when she does, the words on the page start glowing. What does it mean?
“Erax smell your fear and doubt
They’ve been stuck in and now they’re out
If you fail you’ll one become
You have until the sand has run.
It’s your story, take the pen
Though growth may be beyond your ken
Rise up now and earn your wage
Or freeze forever on the page.”
Erax
Then all the lights go out, and the Erax creatures appear.
Erax are like a cross between Gremlins, Stitch from Lilo and Stitch, and Gollum from Lord of the Rings. They’re cute, and they love snacks, but they also bite.
Erax is a cute movie! It is also a great way to get your kids interested in horror, for whatever masochistic reason you might have for doing that.
Just joking.
The horror goes on until Auntie Opal resolves her family’s problem. Basically, she figures out that she needs to be more thoughtful around her family. She can start by remembering Nina’s birthday next year. After a heartfelt apology, Auntie Opal stuffs the Erax back into the books they came out of.
Although the actual video shows that it’s 15 minutes long, the last 5 minutes of playtime are end credits and outtakes.
All in all, Erax was enjoyable, even for me! It took me back to being a kid, when I read the Goosebumps books by R.L. Stine and looked forward to going downstairs to out dimly-lit basement just for the sake of scaring the bejeezus out of myself.
For more family-friendly horror, check out Netflix’s The House (2022)!
Erax: Secret Punny Easter Egg
Did you notice the secret little easter egg they threw into Erax? You may have missed the punny little joke.
Nina’s bookworm family has more tomes than they know what to do with. At the beginning of the short film, when she’s just coming home, Aunty Opal backs into what looks like a mailbox full of old books, knocking several out onto the road.
As she reaches into the box for the Erax book, we see a copy of Stephen King’s The Stand. So what’s the joke?
The Stand falls sideways, but it doesn’t fall out.
It still…stands.
