A group of friends heads to the beach near San Francisco while a serial killer is on the loose. One member of the group splits off and meets a mysterious stranger on the cliffs.
Written and directed by Michael Schwartz, this early 1980s throwback is a fun, creepy at times, lighthearted at others, romp through an era many no longer remembers while others long for it. The film here makes good use of its limited runtime, creating a story starting when the group arrives at the beach with very little set up and very little character development, yet it works. The little bits and pieces the viewer gets of the characters paints an image of a tight knit group of friends making the most of an afternoon during a period of stress in their city and their lives. These characters are interesting, and they grab the attention quite fast. The story is limited to what can be shown during the short runtime, and it works great. The writing here is solid with clear direction, showing an understand of the thriller genre back in the 1980s and what made them work. The film checks a lot of boxes for those who have nostalgia for the era and its cinematic offering while bringing a new angle to it all with characters that may not have been portrayed back in the day but who were definitely around.
The cast here is great with commendable performances by Jelani Alladin as Calvin and Zane Phillips as the unnamed man on the cliff. These two together create a chemistry and a tension that carries the film and elevates the film even further than the heights of the script and direction. The two of them anchor the film and keep the viewer involved. The rest of the cast is limited and gets limited screen time (even by short film standards) so they get very little time to make an impression, but an impression they do make with good performances and that special something that makes them feel like a genuine group of friends.
The film’s look here is very particular and clearly carefully curated with costumes that go well together and with era, a location that is timeless and requires very little set dressing to work, and cinematography by Matthew Pothier who creates just the right images for the story and the film, giving them style and framing the scenes just right. The editing by Mike Patterson works with these images to create the right pace and tempo for the film.
Strangers on A Beach is one of those short films that makes perfect use of its runtime, showing just a glimpse in the lives of the characters, showing the viewer just a little bit of time as part of a beach outing, one that is build as a thriller, showing just a few things and holding back on the things that need to be. There is something mysterious here, assumptions can be made from what is happening in the world away from the beach, but these assumptions may very well be completely incorrect, something the film does great work of keeping as a question mark.