It’s always nice to see the beginning of a filmmaker’s career and if “Don’t Play with Ghosts” is any indication, Sydney Hord has a long road ahead of her filled with surprises. “Don’t Play with Ghosts” is a part of a 48 hour film competition with a three and a half minute length, and in that time Hord manages to paint a really spooky picture. It’s a simplistic premise, but one wrought with some interesting twist and turns.
Co-written and directed by Daniel Brown and Kate McMeans, “The First Step” displays what happens when you take simplicity and pair it with old fashioned scares. What you end up with is a damn good short horror film. I’d even venture to call “The First Step” terrifying but that’s mainly because I hate basements, attics, and old houses. But that’s my hang up.
Michael Gabriele is a powerful director, and it’s proven by “Haven” where he films a beautiful vision of the apocalypse. Surely, it’s one that’s wrought with violence, and a disgusting death, but it’s also one that’s utterly mesmerizing. Some of the shots within “Haven” are magnificent, and he uses a lot of the settings to depict a desolate world where starvation is the order of the day.
Sinclair Obiora’s film “It’s Here!” is a well made little short that I quite enjoyed. It’s set after a massive alien attack where a lone mortician brings in the body of what I presume was one of the victims. “It’s Here!” is set after the fact where the big story has taken place, and what has happened after the event has unfolded. And therein lies its problem. It’s set after the fact.
Nash Edgerton’s “Spider” has a cruel sense of humor to it, but one that I loved. It’s definitely reliant on a simple formula, but also very dependent on a chain effect that garners disastrous results in the very end. I was cringing, I was in disbelief, and by the very end I was laughing awkwardly for all the wrong reasons.
Director April Schroer’s “Sky’s the Limit” is a film that could use at least ten more minutes to help us identify with our characters. If there’s any complaint I can lobby at her film is that it’s much too short to really understand our characters. That said, “Sky’s the Limit” is a fun and entertaining short film about a dad who is looking for a direction in life after his wife left him widowed and a single father.
Dustin Cook’s family drama is a brilliant and tragic picture of two sons forever strapped down to their mother. Too often has this image resonated where kids feel not only constrained to their parents, but dutiful despite their own unhappiness and lack of fulfillment. Cook’s short drama is immediately a compelling character study that explores how families can become a burden and how the children, grown or young, can be forced to forever keep their burden.