This week, we’ve got a full stack of new films. We’ll open with the much-hyped “Longlegs” and see if we agree with the buzz. We’ll stop in and check out an “Oddity,” try not to die on “Tuesday,” figure out how to get by while “Handling the Undead,” and maybe go to a place where “You’ll Never Find Me.” All of these have been released in 2024.
We’ve also got five fun shorts this week as well.
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Full-Length Films:
Longlegs (2024)
● Directed by Osgood Perkins
● Written by Osgood Perkins
● Stars Maika Monroe, Nicolas Cage, Blair Underwood
● Run Time: 1 Hour, 41 Minutes
● Trailer:
Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone
Imagine taking the vibe of “Silence of the Lambs,” adding some supernatural elements and dialing the horror up to full volume, and you might get this movie. It’s really well made with a retro look and excellent performances all around, especially from Maika Monroe in the lead and an unrecognizable Nicolas Cage. We both liked it a lot.
Spoilery Synopsis
We open on a young girl, looking at a car out in the snow. She goes outside and meets a strange man with a white face who says he wore his long legs today. Credits roll.
It’s the 1990s. We cut to a bunch of FBI agents being briefed about doing a door to door search for their suspect, who is expected to be armed and dangerous. Agent Lee Harker waits in the car for Agent Fisk to start knocking on doors. She gets a feeling about one of the houses and wants to call it in. Fisk isn’t about to call in her hunch. Turns out, her hunch was right, and Fisk is shot immediately. Lee goes inside and arrests a man. Afterward, she undergoes a strange psychological test. Could she be psychic? She is at least highly intuitive.
Agent Carter takes Lee and Agent Browning to the house of a man who killed his family. They found a strange handwritten letter in code, signed “Longlegs” and Carter suspects that this person somehow made the father kill his family. There have been ten families murder-suicided like this over the past few years, where Longlegs doesn’t seem to have done it directly himself. Carter wants to know how Lee knew that the house held the murderer; he thinks she is psychic and wants to use Lee to figure out the Longlegs case.
Lee starts researching the ten cases of fathers murdering their families. Carter makes Lee come inside to meet his wife Anna and daughter Ruby. Lee goes home and calls her mother, Ruth, who used to be a nurse. There’s a knock on her door, and she sees someone standing outside in the woods. She goes outside and sees him inside; he leaves her a note: “Do not open until January 14th.”
She opens it anyway and there’s a birthday card inside with the coded words inside. Ruby’s birthday party is soon. She immediately knows how to decode the message, and it’s a threat.
In the morning, Lee gets called to another of the family murders. This one happened a month ago, and they just found the bodies. It’s a mess. Later, Lee decodes the rest of the letters, and they often mention “The Camera Farm,” which is where some of the earliest murders took place.
Lee and Carter go to the Camera farm and look inside the barn. Inside, they find a weird porcelain doll with human hair. They find a metal ball inside the head that the medical examiner calls a brain. Lee gets a vision of Carrie Anne Camera talking to Longlegs. We cut to Longlegs being weird in a convenience store.
The agents go to see Carrie Anne at the mental hospital, she was away when the killings happened and so was the only survivor. The doctor in charge says Carrie Anne was catatonic until she had a visitor yesterday, and she’s been awake. We get flashes back to Carrie Anne’s weird family life. She basically says she’d do anything for her visitor yesterday, even kill.
Carter thinks Lee knows too much about the case and wonders what her connection is; she’s been too helpful to the case. Carter has called Lee’s mother, who says Lee was visited by Longlegs when she was younger.
Lee goes to visit her mother, Ruth, to ask about the man who visited her on her 9th birthday. Ruth pretends to not remember any of what happened. Lee finds a photo of Longlegs from back on that day and takes it back to Carter.
Longlegs is packed and expecting the police when they arrive to arrest him. There’s no real evidence that Longlegs has killed anyone, and he knows who Lee is. Lee insists that Longlegs has an accomplice out there somewhere. Longlegs is a Satanist, and he claims to work for “Mr. Downstairs.”
Lee talks to Longlegs about his accomplice, and he implicates Ruth, Lee’s mother. He then beats his head against the table until he dies. Carter still refuses to believe there’s an accomplice, but Agent Browning, who gives her a ride, might. When Lee goes inside, Ruth kills Browning. Ruth has a special doll as well. When Lee shoots the doll in the head, black smoke comes out of Lee’s head.
We flash back to the opening scene where Longlegs meets Lee. Longlegs was a dollmaker, and he used the devil’s magic to make his dolls. Ruth agreed to help Longlegs in exchange for not killing young Lee. We see how Ruth carried dolls to those families– Longlegs and the devil used the dolls to kill the families.
Lee wakes up in Longlegs’s workshop, which turns out to be in her mother’s basement. She gets a phone call, “You’re late for Ruby’s birthday party.” She goes to the Carter house, with her gun, and sees her Mother is there, dressed like a nun; she’s brought Ruby a doll. Carter and Anna won’t listen; the doll has already taken control of their minds.
Carter kills Anna, and then Lee shots him and her own mother.
Brian’s Commentary
It’s another of those “retro” films. This one takes place in the 90s (Bill Clinton’s photo is on the office wall) but most of the visuals make it look more like the 70s.
The acting is good all-around, with Maika Monroe playing Agent Lee as mildly autistic, spitting out numbers and facts and decoding the letters. She’s not very comfortable around people, which makes her interesting. Blair Underwood, as Carter, is a good manager; he knows what Lee’s abilities are and uses them. Nicolas Cage is almost unrecognizable and is at “peak weird” here.
It’s slow getting started, but it’s very good. It’s like a more horrific turn on “Silence of the Lambs.”
Kevin’s Commentary
Despite the title, there is a real lack of spiders. I thought this was great anyway. I went into it pretty much blind, having heard vague good things about it, and it was even better than I expected. I don’t think I would have known that was Nick Cage if I didn’t know it was Nick Cage, between the makeup and his acting, he’s someone different than usual. I liked the whole vibe, and how the case unfolds as it moves along.
Oddity (2024)
● Directed by Damian Mc Carthy
● Written by Damian Mc Carthy
● Stars Carolyn Bracken, Johnny French, Steve Wall
● Run Time: 1 Hour, 38 Minutes
● Trailer:
Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone
This was well made, strange and interesting. Carolyn Bracken was very good playing twin sisters. The settings and props are cool. It almost felt like there were surprises, yet it was also happening the way we expected at the same time. We give it a moderate thumbs up.
Spoilery Synopsis
We open at a mental hospital where Ted, a doctor, gets a call from Dani, who is working on restoring an old house in the country. She wants to invite her sister, Darcy, to dinner tomorrow night.
She’s alone in the ancient house. Olin, a creepy man with one eye, comes to the door and says someone has sneaked inside with her. He’s one of her husband’s former mental patients, and he swears he’s trying to help her. When she threatens to call the police, he tells her to do that, but she’s lost her phone. She hears noises and starts to wonder if the man is telling the truth. She reaches for the door handle, and– credits roll.
We cut to Declan, another one of the mental patients, who is a good artist and living in a halfway house. He has many sketches of the one-eyed man we saw outside Dani’s house. Something out in the hallway terrifies him and then he finds Olin, head crushed. He picks up the eye which was laying on the ground.
Ted goes to visit Darcy, Dani’s blind sister, who runs an antique shop, “Odello’s Oddities,” that has items that she says are haunted. She shows Ted a cursed bell, claiming that if it’s rung the furious ghost of a bellhop will appear. She puts it away without using it. Ted says he has something; Declan has died and they “found it” among his possessions. Darcy has been asking for it, and she wants to examine it. It’s been a year since Dani’s murder. Ted’s got a new girlfriend, Yana, and the two of them are living in that old house.
Darcy goes home, and we see that now she has Olin’s weird glass eye. She uses her psychic abilities to see what he saw.
Ted talks to Yana, who found Dani’s old camera. There are photos of Dani on the camera, but Yana took the picture two days ago. Yana’s been seeing things in the old house; could Dani be haunting them? Darcy has a locked crate delivered. Then she shows up to visit, and it’s awkward with Yana there. Ted has to go to work and Yana has had enough of the creepy house and was planning on going to the city for the night, so Darcy wants to stay there alone.
Darcy unlocks the crate, and Ted and Yana are confused by the contents. It’s some kind of wooden doll man with a very creepy face. Ted goes to work and looks at Declan’s file; it’s full of drawings that look like the wooden man in the box.
Back at the house, Yana wants to leave but can’t find her car keys. Darcy says that she’s a psychic; she can “read” personal physical objects. Darcy tells her that Olin didn’t kill Dani. We flashback to what really happened that night, and Darcy is right. It was a masked killer while Olin was outside.
At the hospital, orderly/guard Ivan is just creepy as can be. He asks about Darcy, someone he shouldn’t know about. Yana calls, saying Darcy told her that Ivan was the one who killed Dani last year. When Darcy goes to sleep, Yana messes around with the wooden man and finds photos, a tooth, some hair, and a vial of blood inside its head. Darcy awakens and yells at her to put them back, which she does.
Later that night, Yana sees some weirdness on the camera and in her bedroom. She finds her car keys and drives away, terrified. Ted arrives, and Darcy says Dani scared her off. Darcy admits killing Olin; she was crazy herself for a while. That was before she learned the truth from handling the eye. Ted reminds Darcy that she has brain cancer and is probably having hallucinations. She wants to kill Ivan next. She says Ted asked Ivan to do it; he’d been cheating on Dani and wanted to be rid of her. We get another flashback of the whole discussion.
Darcy says she plans to expose Ted. Ted insists that this is all in Darcy’s mind and goes to get the detective in charge of the case to call her later, all the evidence pointed to Olin. It’s all a trick, as Ted has opened a trap door for her to fall into. Splat!
Ivan returns to the house and finds Darcy, severely injured and not quite dead. “We are connected,” she says. When Ivan comes downstairs, the wooden man is moving and comes after him, seeming to be controlled by Darcy. Darcy smiles and dies as Dani looks in.
Ivan wakes up later, in the mental hospital. Ted has had him committed. Ted says he’s burned the wooden man. Ted leaves him alone, strapped to the bed, along with another violent prisoner– who kills Ivan.
Yana leaves Ted a voicemail, a breakup with “Do not call me again,” added. She’s done with him and his haunted house.
Ted opens up a box sent from Darcy, and it contains that bell, one of Darcy’s “oddities” that supposedly conjures up the ghost of a bellhop. He thought it was silly in her shop, but Darcy seemed to take it seriously. After some hesitation, Ted rings the bell…
Brian’s Commentary
There’s a short film, “How Olin Lost His Eye” that was the basis of this film. One of Darcy’s oddities is the ugly rabbit from “Caveat” (2020).
The wooden man is a very cool-looking prop. The bell thing felt a bit random; were all the things in Darcy’s shop reallycursed?
I liked it, mostly.
Kevin’s Commentary
The old fortress house that got restored and that they live in is very cool. The cast is very good, especially the lead, who plays a dual role, and the story is solid. The twists and surprises somehow manage not to feel very surprising. I thought it was very good, not quite great.
Tuesday (2024)
● Directed by Daina Oniunas-Pusic
● Written by Daina Oniunas-Pusic
● Stars Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Lola Petticrew, Leah Harvey
● Run Time: 1 Hour, 50 Minutes
● Trailer:
Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone
To call this horror is pushing it, but it does have a massive body count. Death is personified, appearing to a dying woman and her mother. But things get more complicated than that as death is delayed from his task. It’s a good philosophical what-if kind of fantasy movie that keeps a tight focus on four characters. It was quite good.
Spoilery Synopsis
We get a shot of Earth from space and then zoom out to see a weird bird asleep on someone’s eye. The weird bird flies away, grows huge, and confronts a woman in the parking lot. The bird waves his wing, and the woman dies. He then flies to an old woman and it does the same thing to her. He then hears a man say “I’m not dying,” as he bleeds out; the bird gets him too. This bird is Death.
We cut to Zora, who is tiptoeing around the house to keep from disturbing Tuesday, her daughter, who is sick in home hospital bed. Zora goes to a taxidermy shop to sell a set of stuffed pontifical rats; she needs the money.
Tuesday is home, talking with Nurse Billie. Tuesday starts breathing funny, and elsewhere, the magic bird perks up. The bird comes to “collect” Tuesday, but stops when the girl starts telling him a story about one of the neighbors. The bird of death laughs at Tuesday’s joke. Suddenly, there’s some loud music, and the bird shrinks. She picks him up and tells him he’s had a panic attack.
The bird has glue on his foot, and when Tuesday offers to wash him, he says “I’m filthy.” Yes, the bird can talk. “I haven’t spoken in a long time.” She helps Death wash the filth off. He hugs her afterward. She knows what he’s there to do, but asks to phone her mother first. When Zora doesn’t pick up, Death gets angry. He talks about hearing everyone’s pain, forever. The two of them sing a rap song and then vape together.
Tuesday and Death talk about their awful mothers. Death’s was significantly worse. Zora gets home and Billie tells her that she needs to spend more time with Tuesday. It’s clear that Zora has been avoiding her dying daughter. Tuesday tells Zora that Death has come for her, and the bird reveals itself. The bird explains things to Zora. There’s a brief scuffle, and Zora and Death knock each other out.
When they wake up, Zora asks for just ten more minutes. The camera takes us outside, where the bird hears everything again, which is terrible. When he’s with Tuesday, the voices are quiet. Suddenly, Zora smashes the bird with a heavy textbook and then sets it on fire. She swallows what’s left. She tells Tuesday that “It had to go.” Meanwhile, all around the world, people are maimed and injured, but none of them are dying.
Zora and Tuesday spend the day together, and it’s nice for both of them. Tuesday complains that “everything hurts.” Tuesday learns that Zora has sold almost everything in the house to pay for her care. They argue about that until Zora gets angry and grows to a ridiculous size.
Meanwhile, as Nurse Bille walks to work, all hell is breaking loose outside. She arrives to find giant Zora scrunched up in the living room. Then she shrinks to a tiny size and runs off. Billie tells Tuesday about all the crazy non-deaths all over the world, and Tuesday explains what happened.
Zora starts hearing Death’s voice in her head, and things die when she waves her hand over them. Zora helps out a man whose time has passed, and she sees it as a good thing. She does the same for many others. Zora carries Tuesday along to catch up on the overdue deaths, and they both come to the realization that Death is necessary eventually. “We’re really good at this. We can do this full time, right?” Tuesday just wants to go home.
Zora can still hear all the dying people in her head including Tuesday. We see that the Death-bird has been sleeping inside her all this time, and she vomits it up. We don’t hear the details, but Zora and Death make some kind of deal. He shrinks down and goes back inside her.
Tuesday knows what’s going on now, and Zora clears up a few points. Later, at home, Death says he wants out. They say their goodbyes, and Tuesday finally dies.
Time passes. Zora struggles with bills. Death stops in for a visit to see how she’s doing. Zora says she’d like to be dead, but Death isn’t cooperating. She begs. Death tells what he knows about God and the afterlife; the legacy people leave behind. He persuades Zora to stick around.
Then the bird flies away.
Brian’s Commentary
This one was listed as a horror film, but it’s more of a magical fantasy about Death, so it probably fits into horror somewhere around the very edges. There’s a large creature who kills a lot of people, so there’s that, but it’s definitely not a horror film. There have been many other films in the past where Death takes a holiday, is taken prisoner, or otherwise put out of action for a while, and the situation always goes the same way.
Death is obviously a puppet and CGI, but he’s done really well. There aren’t a lot of special effects here otherwise, but what we do get are well done.
There’s a lot here that deals with dying and grief, and dealing with both. Why do people die? Why are we here? What good is a parent without their child?
It’s more philosophical than horrific, but it was still a good movie. Just don’t expect to be scared.
Kevin’s Commentary
Going into it, I was expecting more of a horror experience. But it was still nice. It’s not a happy movie, but it’s nice and it’s moving. We knew what was going to happen with Death distracted and delayed and not doing his job, and it was really handled well seeing the world start to go to chaos in the background while focusing mostly on the two main characters. I’d say that I liked it.
Handling the Undead (2024)
● Directed by Thea Hvistendahl
● Written by Thea Hvistendahl, John Ajvide Lindqvist
● Stars Bjorn Sundquist, Renate Reinsve, Dennis Ostry Ruud
● Run Time: 1 Hour, 37 Minutes
● Trailer:
Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone
This was a super slow moving movie, but we were not bored watching it. The freshly dead come back, and the focus is on three family units and how they are experiencing it, with the rest of the world in the background. Rather than being a high action zombie apocalypse, it deals in a more realistic fashion with what it would be like for people seeing those they care deeply about coming back to a half-alive sort of life. Reviews seem mixed, but we liked it a lot.
Spoilery Synopsis
An old man sits and smokes, packs a lunch, and goes for a walk. He goes into a building, but he has to take the stairs when the elevator doesn’t work. When old Mahler arrives at Anna’s apartment, they don’t really speak much; she doesn’t want the food he brought her. She basically ignores him and leaves. Maher then cleans up her apartment and puts toys back where they belong, but there are no children here.
We cut to Tora, an old woman, at her elderly friend’s funeral. She’s the only one there, and she’s pretty upset. We then cut to Flora, who is much younger, as her mother begs her to babysit young Kian. Their mother is off to pick up a birthday present, and their father, David, is a stand-up comic.
David gets a phone call; his wife has been in an accident and has been killed. Tora cries at night. Mahler visits his grandson’s grave and cries. Suddenly, weird electrical disturbances happen all over town. Mahler gets a headache and passes out right on a fresh grave. When he wakes up, he hears something underground, like knocking. He grabs a shovel and starts digging, “Grandpa’s coming,” he shouts. He gets to the coffin and there’s definitely knocking from inside. He opens it…
Tora finds her front door open and then finds her friend, Elisabet, digging through the fridge. “You’re stone cold, dear.” In the hospital, David notices his wife, Eva, moving around. The doctors say Eva’s heart is beating, but very slowly; they can’t explain it and they’ve never seen anything like it. He goes home and doesn’t quite know how to explain it to Flora.
Mahler carries his grandson Elias home and cleans him up from the grave but he’s still clearly not right. Elias is pretty gross and bloated, but the old man pretends not to notice. Anna attempts suicide, but Mahler finds her in time. He tells her about Elias, and she’s happy until she gets a good look at her son. The police come to the door wanting to know if they have Elias in there.
Pretty soon, everyone knows what’s happening, and the cemetery is a busy place, as is the hospital. Tora cleans up Elisabet and puts makeup on her. When she tries to feed her, things get a little scary for a moment.
Mahler, Anna, and Elias move to a cabin on an island to avoid the police. Elias won’t play anymore. David can’t get a straight answer from the hospital about Eva, and they stop taking his calls. His children have no idea what’s even going on. Tora realizes pretty quickly that Elizabet isn’t really all there anymore, but she’s still in love.
Everyone is sad; we get a misery montage as everyone realizes that this just isn’t right.
David, Flora, and Kian go to the hospital to visit Eva, and she’s not looking good. Kian takes along his new pet rabbit, a birthday present, and Eva holds it– and squishes it to death in front of the kids. It is not a satisfying visit for anyone.
Tora takes an overdose of sleeping pills and dies in bed next to Elisabet, who eventually starts chewing on Tora. It’s a lot less romantic now.
Kian gives his rabbit a funeral. Flora cries. David realizes that the current situation is worse than if Eva had simply died.
On the island, Elias is constantly covered in flies, but worse, Anna sees a scary-looking zombie outside. Mahler returns from getting water and attacks the dead man. The dead man kills Mahler as Anna runs off with Elias. On a rowboat, Anna drops Elias overboard after saying goodbye.
Brian’s Commentary
Embalming is not as common in Norway as it is in other countries, so this is all completely possible. There has to be more than three families that this happens to, you’d think it would be all over the news, and yet David goes on for half the film not knowing anything.
It’s bleak and atmospheric, or maybe that’s just Norway. I’ve seen complaints that the film is slow and boring. I think that’s just the atmosphere building up. This is not a “World War Z”-type action movie, this is a zombie drama. The upside-down cross on the movie poster hints that it’s all Satanic or something, but there’s nothing like that; it all just sorta happens, and there’s nothing evil about it.
It’s slow, and there’s almost no action at all, but I thought it was pretty good.
Kevin’s Commentary
The way that it focuses on a few people, dealing with the pain of losing someone and then dealing with the uncertainty when they sort of come back to them. It’s a bit of a limbo they are stuck in, and rather than being joyous that their loved one is back, it makes things worse. It creeps along, but I really liked it.
You’ll Never Find Me (2024)
● Directed by Josiah Allen, Indianna Bell
● Written by Indianna Bell
● Stars Brendan Rock, Jordan Cowan, Elena Carapetis
● Run Time: 1 Hour, 40 Minutes
● Trailer:
Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone
With just two people in the small space of a trailer, this almost felt like it could have been a stage play. Almost. On a dark and stormy night, we’re left puzzling throughout what’s really going on, and if they are each who they seem to be. It’s a strange one, but good, and we liked it a lot.
Spoilery Synopsis
We see that Patrick lives alone in a mobile home. Credits roll.
Suddenly, there’s a knock on the door. He doesn’t want to be disturbed, but the knocker is very persistent. It’s pouring rain outside, and he lets the visitor in. She asks for a ride into town, but he says his car is broken down; there are no buses at 2 a.m. The storm outside continues to rage.
The visitor says she was at the beach earlier and must have fallen asleep. Her feet are a mess, and Patrick finds holes in her story. He doesn’t have a phone either, the payphone is way up at the front of the park.
Patrick admits that he’s paranoid, but that’s because people in the park like to play pranks on him. She starts getting creeped out by the older man, but it’s still storming. He notices her earring.
He offers to let her take a shower to warm up, but she senses a trap. She’s nervous, but proceeds. She gets a vision that she’s bleeding from a head wound. Afterward, he gives her a woman’s sweater that he says used to belong to an old girlfriend.
She asks what he’s running from; everyone is hiding from something. She talks about just coming from work, which doesn’t match her story from earlier. He makes her soup, but she suspects something is in it and pours it in his boot.
Suddenly, there’s another knock at the door. No one’s there, it’s probably just neighbor kids. Then the lights go out, and the sounds outside go from stormy to scary. As Patrick bends down to look at the fuse box, the visitor sees that his back is bleeding. This leads to her looking for aspirin in his medicine chest and finding a bottle containing numerous earrings, including one exactly like hers. Which is missing from one of her ears.
She’s ready to leave, but he says he’ll walk her out when the storm lets up. She insists on leaving, and he starts to take offense at how ungrateful she is. She thinks he’s locked her in, but when she tries to open the door, it’s unlocked. The storm is really nasty, so she has no choice but to stay. They eventually calm down and play cards.
Patrick talks about meeting his wife; the sweater was really hers. She’s the first person to visit him since his wife died from an overdose. He knows her entire story is made-up, but he’s just happy to have someone to talk to. She sees lipstick on her cup and accuses him of lying.
A branch outside falls on the roof, and Patrick goes out to look at the damage. The visitor stays inside and finds that Patrick has had a cell phone all along. No, it’s not his, there’s a dead woman in his bedroom. Meanwhile, outside, Patrick sees something that shocks him.
Patrick grabs her from behind, but she knocks the wind out of him. He gets up, drags her to the kitchen, and ties her hands and feet and drugs her. He drags her to the bed where he puts her next to the other dead woman.
Patrick explains how he met the woman at a gas station earlier this evening. He thinks it’s more than a coincidence that she knocked on his door tonight, of all times. He explains the dosages of the GHB that he gave her; enough to kill. He talks about all the girls he’s done this to; he can barely remember the first. He talks about philosophy as she slowly dies.
The radio comes back on, playing the same song it’s been playing all along. Patrick checks on the corpse, and sees that she’s his original, first victim that he described earlier. He killed that one with a hammer, and now his hammer is all bloody. The dead girl and the other dead woman laugh and sit up.
Something in the dark grabs Patrick and he finds himself covered in blood. He screams and sees all the women he’s killed over the years.
There’s another pounding at the door, and Patrick sees red and blue flashing lights outside. One of the dead girls offers Patrick a vial of the poison. He freaks out a little more and then drinks it down.
Suddenly, there’s no one there. There’s no storm, no girl, just Patrick at home alone. There’s a knock at the door– it’s the neighbor kids again. He checks his pockets and finds his empty bottle of poison there. Wheezing, he goes back inside to die…
Brian’s Commentary
It’s described as “A psychological thriller-horror on paranoia and gender power dynamics.” Yep, that pretty much covers it; it’s both awkward and tense throughout. Why is she lying about everything, and why is he so creepy-acting? The first hour is really good as the two characters try hard to not freak out the other one but still manage to do it.
It’s about as low-budget as a film can be, shot entirely inside a dark mobile home with mostly only two actors.
There was obviously going to be a twist, but I expected that the girl would be the bad guy, since that was opposite of what we’d expected. That’s not exactly the way it worked out. We do get an explanation of everything, and it all makes sense, but you do need to be paying attention to the stories that the characters tell along the way.
It’s good!
Kevin’s Commentary
The writing was excellent, and since a big chunk of it was just the two of them talking, that was an important aspect. It held my interest throughout. Who knew so much could happen in such a confined space?
Short Films:
Short Film: The Devil’s Passenger (2024)
● Directed by David Bundtzen
● Written by David Bundtzen
● Stars Colleen Kelly, Gabrielle Niebauer, Will James Johnson
● Run Time: 4:29
● Watch it:
What Happens
Lauren is on her way to work and stops at a red light. Suddenly, a woman pounds on the back window of the van in front of Lauren’s car, obviously some kind of abused prisoner. Lauren drops her phone and can’t call for help, so she follows the van. It doesn’t end well…
Commentary
This is one of those films where we understand everything that happens but don't get any explanation as to why. Still, it’s well-filmed, well-acted, and nicely paced, and it’s also pretty short. You still have to wonder why this is all happening. Just because.
Short Film: Incursion (2024)
● Directed by Anand Kulkarni
● Written by Anand Kulkarni
● Stars Mena Ren-Fritzke
● Run Time: 2:51
● Watch it:
What Happens
Sarah sits in her living room working on her computer when she gets a photo texted to her. It’s a photo of her, taken from just outside. There’s no one there when she goes to look out the window, but then she gets a cryptic message on her computer as well.
Then she finds out what’s really going on…
Commentary
It’s super short and doesn’t explain anything, but it looks good and is mostly effective. It’s dark, but you can always see what’s going on, and the acting is good. Still, I’d like to have some reasoning as to why this is happening. Did Sarah do something? Just a bad night? I don’t know…
Still, it’s hard to go wrong with a three-minute investment of your time, so check it out!
Short Film: The Jogger (2023)
● Directed by Daryl Denner
● Written by Daryl Denner
● Stars Amanda Troisi, Michael R. Bollentin, Rodney Reyes
● Run Time: 7:00
● Watch it:
What Happens
A woman is out for her regular morning run and notices a strange man sitting on a bench watching her. She passes him quickly but then sees him again at the next bench—and the next. This guy clearly isn’t running to catch her; he’s just… there.
To get away from the odd man, she takes a trail off into the woods, where things get even weirder…
Commentary
Nothing bad can happen in a busy park on a beautiful day, can it? Yep. This one is good. There’s no dialogue at all, but we get a clear picture of what’s going on at the end. We don’t know exactly what the mysterious man is all about, but we know why he’s there and what he wants. I would have liked it to have been just a few seconds longer so we could see how the ending plays out.
Good!
Short Film: I, Adonis (2021)
● Directed by Angelo Raaijmakers
● Written by Angelo Raaijmakers
● Stars Hein van Rooij, Dennis van Beusekom, Jolanda van den Berg
● Run Time: 13:44
● Watch it:
What Happens
Nicky had an unfortunate childhood. His mother dressed him like a little girl, and all his friends laughed. Now, grown-up Nicky is a bodybuilder, and he’s not going to pass for a girl anymore. Still, his body isn’t quite where he wants it to be.
Bodybuilding is hard without the right diet…
Commentary
Body dysmorphia is a thing that drives people to all sorts of weird behavior, but Nicky may be a bit over-the-top here. Otherwise, this short takes its time in building up the creep factor– I was starting to wonder if it was going anywhere horrific, but it eventually did. This is well shot, looks good, and really has an excellent cast to be in this story. I doubt most of them were actors, but they were all perfect for this one.
It’s a little slow, but it’s definitely unsettling.
Short Film: Baby Fever (2022)
● Directed by Hannah May Cumming
● Written by Hannah May Cumming
● Stars Helena Berens, Louis Llewellyn, Georgia Thomas
● Run Time: 25:03
● Watch it:
What Happens
It’s 1972, and it’s the week of the Prom. Donna has plans to be the Prom Queen alongside football star Trip Baker. Her friend and sidekick, Brandy, is obviously jealous, but she’s a follower. When Donna gives up her virginity to Trip in the science class storeroom, they don’t see that they’ve released something unusual.
Will she keep the baby? That’s not an easy question in 1972. The more important question in her mind is whether or not the baby will start showing before the Prom. In Biology class, it’s time to dissect a frog, and that goes badly, demonstrating that the Prom may be the least of Donna’s worries.
Commentary
Oh my. This one is a little slow getting started, but once it gets going, it really gets going! There were several laugh-out-loud moments in this one, and the ending is very reminiscent of another famous “Prom” movie.
It’s well-acted and shot, the sound and lighting are good, and overall, it’s very professionally done. The special effects are, although not exactly groundbreaking, completely fine for this story and actually add to the humor in some places.
This one is really good!
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Longlegs, Oddity, You’ll Never Find Me, Handling the Undead, and Tuesday