Shriekfest: Day 5

Posted by Robert Fure (robert@filmschoolrejects.com) on October 12, 2006

Hey hey, sorry for the delay. Also sorry for the rhyme. Here is film program 17 from Shriekfest, a couple of shorts.

Richter’s Agenda

In this seven minute short, a female college student is at first bothered, and then terrorized, by a mysterious stranger on Instant Messenger. Even after signing off and unplugging her webcam, messages and images keep showing up. Could he already be inside?

If you’ve ever seen a horror movie, then you know, yes, he is. But it’s still a well done short film. The best part is their AIM conversation which plays out like the kind of conversations you’ve had with your friends, including smiley faces. It was predictable and of low quality, but that’s to be expected of a student film - at least the quality. Overall, enjoyable.

Final Grade: B

Dead West

In this short, a woman is thrown from her horse and arrives in a mysterious and deserted town. She falls unconcious and when she comes to again, she is joined by several travels who arrived via a mysterious stage coach. When an other worldly law man with a skull for a face shows up to take each in turn to the gallows, Elizabeth must quickly figure out why she is here and wheter or not she deserves to be in this gateway to hell.

The production value on this was pretty good and I liked the lawman for the most part, although the eye effect they did on him just looked strange rather than menacing. Overall it was fairly original and a good time.

Final Grade: B-

Zombie Hunter ( http://www.zombiehuntermovie.com/flash_index.html)

In this short Mad Max meets Dawn of the Dead with a spaghetti western flavor. Or at least thats what they tell you. Its very obvious that this film is trying to emulate Mad Max and the director was “inspired” by Sergio Leone. But what you end up with is relatively poor acting, a weird/weak script, and a lazier and less inspired and well executed version of the famous The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly trio gunfight with quick cuts and extreme close ups.

It wasn’t without its charms, though, and some of the humor worked well. It didn’t take itself seriously, which lead to a few laughs, is probably what ultimately lead to its failure. Despite how out there Mad Max was or how unrealistic Dawn of the Dead was or how stylistically flashy The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly was they kept a seriousness about them that existed in their own universes. Pass.

Final Grade: D+

Penny Dreadful

This was the second film called Penny Dreadful at the festival. This one rocked. It follows a husband and wife who move into a house they inheirit. However, the estate tax is far too high for them to pay, so they begin looking for a buyer for the 5 million dollar property. Spooky things happen to Jessica while her Doctor husband is away and she is haunted by visions of a small child, a ghastly murder and the murderer. Her visions grow more and more terrifying as time goes by. After they finally sell the house, it’s revealed that the new buyers are the people she was seeing. In a twist, she foresaw their murder, not relived a past one.

This film was a lot like The Amityville Horror, almost to the point where I was ready to dismiss it. But it looked great, the acting was good, and the twist at the end made it original enough for me to recommend. If you come across this somewhere, by all means give it a watch. I enjoyed it.

Final Grade: A

The Descendant

Back to back hits! This short film follows a pair of hitman tasked to take out a man. Or so they think. Their target ends up being a small child. One begins to back out but the other goes forward only to find that this child is not human, but rather a descendant of the Prince of Darkness himself. And the hit was ordered by none other than his own mother, wishing to be free of him!

The film looked great, the acting was awesome, especially from the child. Probably the reason this movie went over so well with me is that they achieved something very few movies in this vein do - made a child villain terrifying. Normally its hard to buy a child as evil. Even in The Omen, Damian is never menacing, he’s just a child that happens to be evil. This kid looks the part and is both innocent and down right evil. Awesome job!

Final Grade: A

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