Dir: James Ward Byrkit
So you want to make a film but have no money? Of course you are going to make a horror film because they are cheap to make and easier than other genres to find a distributor to make back your investment. And it'll be best to copy what is big at the moment, right? Possession films are the in thing right now. How about a found footage film about demonic possession of a young woman? That will not take much cash and by ripping off the other shite films you've seen on Netflix the script will practically write itself. Is that your thinking? Fuck you. You are what is wrong with the horror genre.
The debut from director James Ward Byrkit is a low budget horror film shot over five nights at his house in California. Tick off horror, micro budget and short shooting schedule and one is well on the way to creating a by the numbers calling card film. But Byrkit has done something other writers and directors working in this genre often fail to do. He has come up with an interesting idea that goes in unique directions. He's put in the time and effort to come up with a creative film.
A group of old friends meets together for a dinner party at one of the couple's home on the night of a comet passing close to the Earth. The guests are a bit upset that their mobile phones aren't connecting and the household computer can't connect to the Internet but the party continues. It's when power is lost in the entire neighbourhood save for one house two block away, that the partiers become concerned. Seeking a landline to contact the astrophysicist brother of one of the guests who gave a heads up about weird happenings due to the comet, two of the guests venture to the house with power. They come back with a box of photographs of each of them with a number on the back and a tale about the other house being occupied by their doppelgangers.
The largely improvised dialogue rings true as the bumps in the night escalate along with paranoia over what the other group is up to. There's a natural progression of the characters making jokes about their reliance on mobile phones to dark, troubling thoughts as they piece together the mystery. Call it a mind fuck film or what you will, the timeline is well thought out as are the reactions of the every day folk caught up in disturbing events.
Both THE TWILIGHT ZONE and PRIMER seem to be influences. The former for the spooky tone, the later for its can do attitude and creativity. COHERENCE is in good company.
Buy it, rent it, support it.
*** out of ****
No comments:
Post a Comment