Premiering at the LA International Short Film Festival, Tim Aslin and Shane Cibella’s short “5.7 Seconds” is a great idea, teeming with the feeling from a movie like “28 Weeks Later.” In an undisclosed location, in an unexplained calamity, a young woman rushes in to an abandoned car and locks herself inside from stalking individuals out in the middle of the day. Distraught and panicked, she locks the doors and is shocked to discover someone else has been hiding in the car, too.
Unsure about their intentions or if they’re “tainted,” their mistrust soon betrays their survival instincts. Now it becomes a matter of who can be trusted, and if it’s worth risking your life to prevent losing it. A lot of “5.7 Seconds” is so abundantly vague that I was never sure what was unfolding here. It’s often times watching like a “28 Days Later” fan film, and other times it feels like a “Bird Box” situation. The closed in setting and rapid fire cuts don’t help to soothe the inherent anxiety.
Nevertheless, “5.7 Seconds” is very good at keeping the tension thick and the paranoia absolutely taut through the end credits; I also loved Shante DeLoach and Henry Hetz in their duel roles, playing well off of one another while also maintaining the film’s intentional hazy circumstances. I admit I didn’t think much of the finale, nor did it really offer a ton of explanation or clarity toward what we’d invested time in to. But that doesn’t fully hinder what is a unique and creepy chamber piece