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For what it is, director Mike Pickle's "Stab Awake" is a decent first
effort with a meshing of genres for what is a considerably entertaining
short film. Though not perfect, "Stab Awake" is an admirable outing from
Pickle who combines the supernatural and the slasher genre with a hint
of hard rock to offer up his own horror title about campers, a slasher
in the woods, and a man overcome by evil spirits. Clearly Mike Pickle is
a man with love for the horror genre and "Stab Awake" is an entertaining
short outing with Pickle displaying an interesting sense of vision and
creativity with what is an obviously low budget film.
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He relies on all the conventions of the genre with the cabin
in the woods and the party that goes awry while also
enlisting some neat camera tricks including one moment that
is seen through a night vision scope. It's a pretty wicked
moment in what Pickle grooms to be a supernatural slasher
with main character Phil being overcome with monsters after
trying to see other dimensions with his spiritual practices
his friends openly discourage.
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The dimensional experimentation goes too well and Phil becomes a
monster over the course of the weekend partying with his friends and
there's an outright siege of blood, guts, and grue as Phil is
ravaged by the monster he strongly wanted to meet. Pickle stages
some interesting moments of carnage along with some pretty decent
special effects all the while garnering a nice surprise closing
scene that is morbid in its own right and signals only the beginning
of a blossoming horror director looking to make waves in his own
niche.
That said
the film is not without its issues as it spends too much time on
dialogue and not enough forward momentum with the story, all the
while the editing leaves much to be desired with some shaky
transitions and fight choreography. I was very interested to see how
the character Phil would ultimately reveal his nature to his
friends, and sadly Pickles spends a little too much time on
character interaction (especially one in a car that derails the
narrative) that isn't entirely necessary to the story or too
interesting.
If you're willing to
keep an open mind, "Stab Awake" is a decent short horror film with a lot
of ambition, creativity, and body count as director Mike Pickle throws
his hat in the ring as an indie director looking to provide his own
twists and turns for his audience, and I wish him all the luck in doing
so.
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