What If We Kissed on the Operating Table (2025)

-Written by Kyle Bain.

2026 GENREBLAST FILM FESTIVAL REVIEW! 

Eyeball lollipop! Yum!

If you thought, even for a second: what the fuck, then you’re in the same boat as me (and likely everyone else) after watching What If We Kissed On the Operating Table. An experimental short film depicting vile and spine-chilling visuals, What If We Kissed On the Operating Table explores aspects of the human condition in ways that I’ve never before seen on screen. 

Patience (Scarlett Pomers) chooses to participate in a unique operation that promises to fix all of her problems. However, there are consequences for each and every one of our decisions; Patience will soon find that the toll this operation will take on her may not be worth the gamble. 

While I found the entirety of What If We Kissed On the Operating Table to be compelling, the opening scene is what wowed me the most. Pomers’ porcelain skin sits against a backdrop of much darker tones, causing her to pop and to remain the focus of that opening scene. While we don’t necessarily know the role she will play in the rest of the film, Writer-Director Sydney Mills does a spectacular job of using this juxtaposition to create a sense of mystery and drama. By forcing this perspective viewers are privy to the fact that Pomers’ Patience doesn’t necessarily belong here, strengthening the idea that something wicked is just around the corner. 

One of the reviews attached to the screener I had access to stated something along the lines of What If We Kissed On the Operating Table making them want to throw up. The fact that the team behind promoting this short film chose to include this information means that they believed it to be a compliment. Furthermore, this means that Mills and her team strove to create a film that made viewers’ stomachs uneasy. With that said, I feel that they absolutely achieved what they set out to create. 

To create something wildly disturbing isn’t the most incredible feat. However, Mills accomplishes far more than this—developing an emotional tone that is strewn throughout the entirety of this short film. What If We Kissed On the Operating Table has viewers rooting for Patience, even if they’re never entirely sure what they are seeing. To be emotionally invested in something as insane as What If We Kissed On the Operating Table is an incredible feat, and the reason I was able to remain present in the film from start to finish. 

What If We Kissed On the Operating Table walks the line between existential and grotesque—slipping in and out of each throughout. It’s just gross enough to turn your stomach, while retaining a level of depth that seems almost uncharacteristic of something as aesthetically wild as this. Mills does a spectacular job of achieving tonal balance through her use of extremes—and What If We Kissed On the Operating Table is one of the most unique films I’ve seen in some time. 

Written & Directed by Sydney Mills. 

Starring Scarlett Pomers, Gwenmarie White, Grace Su, KANGA, Carmen Dorame, etc. 

8/10 = WORTH RENTING OR BUYING