In ‘Portrait of God,’ the scariest thing is what you can’t see | The Haunted Column

Do you know what God looks like? Can anyone really imagine it, and even if we could, would it ever be right?
There’s something deeply unsettling about the silence in ‘Portrait of God’. There are no shrieking violins, no sudden jump scares. Just stillness. The kind that settles in a chapel after the choir leaves. Directed by Dylan Clark, this short horror film doesn’t lean on gore or theatrics. Instead, it plays on a quiet, creeping dread that coils around your spine like slow-burning incense.

The plot is deceptively simple. A devout Christian girl is preparing a school presentation on a painting called ‘Portrait of God’. But here’s where it gets strange, no one can see the face. Some claim they do. One says God has deep, unknowable eyes. Another sees a tall, slender figure. But everyone who gazes at the painting finds only an eerie void where his face should be.

The more the girl studies the portrait, the more she begins to unravel. Her belief begins to tremble. Doubt sneaks in. Faith falters. And soon, reality starts to slip through the cracks.

It’s easy to overlook a short film. How much impact can something under ten minutes really have? But Dylan Clark does more in this tiny window than many horror films manage in a full-length feature. There’s a slow, steady tension to the storytelling. It feels like stepping into a familiar church, only to realise something is terribly off, and you’re no longer alone.

The performances are quiet and restrained, almost to the point of stiffness. But that works here. The protagonist doesn’t fall into dramatic hysteria. She holds her fear close, like a secret she’s afraid to name. There’s no soundtrack guiding your emotions either, just silence, echoing like an unfinished prayer.

Religious horror often falls back on clichés. Demonic possession. Screaming priests. Holy water. ‘Portrait of God’ does something different. It doesn’t show you evil. Instead, it makes you ask whether the idea of God Himself could be frightening. What if the divine is unknowable? And what does that mean for us, for our need to understand, to believe, to feel safe?

We’ve spent centuries building images of God. But have we ever paused to wonder what He actually looks like?

‘Portrait of God’ doesn’t end with a scream. It lingers. Like a question left unanswered. Or a face you can’t quite remember, no matter how hard you try.