Who Goes There

I always try to support the original cast of Studio C because I don't want them to be stuck being just that, especiall Mallory Everton. She's an amazing actress and she deserves more roles, however this was very underwhelming and overwhelming at the same time.

I didn't expect the short or it's acting to be amazing since Mallory Everton (who plays the lead) is used to comedy, but for what it's worth, she and Arabella Rain Boles actually had some believable acting. I've seen better, but considering this isn't a big film like Scream, I can't really drag it down too much.

However, the acting can't save the awful audio quality in this. It peaks any time someone talks louder than a whisper, which is the majority of the things you hear characters say. For the audio it's self, the music is good, but some of sound effects are straight up goofy and sound like something used in a YouTube video.

This short makes the bold choice to go into a POV shot everytime our main character runs away from something, but because it's so dark and the camera is so chaotically shaky, it's hard to tell what's going on in these scenes. You'll hear breathing and screaming, then a flash of someone chasing her, then black, then the stairs, then black again. This happens so many times that you have no way of knowing what's happening for most of the film.

All in all, this short had a good idea. If they wouldn't have done the POV shot and got a better audio set up, it could have been pretty good, which is sad, because I love horror films and I would love to see Mallory in more horror films, but if this is her first impression, that might not happen.

I didn't have the heart to finish the sound properly after my brother died suddenly while I was editing the film.

I'm eventually going to find someone to do a proper sound design pass and completely redo the sound mix.

The film was never meant to have a cohesive narrative structure since it's mostly a reflection of the inner turmoil I was experiencing after leaving the religion I was apart of for 39 years and the separation and eventual divorce I was going through at the time.

Each one of the characters, alive or dead, are all physical manifestations of myself only, my emotions and the heartbreak I was experiencing at the time, especially feeling like I failed my three kids.

The film was a way of expressing that inner turmoil, the guilt, shame and self criticism.

It was a nightmare...

...and nightmares do not have a narrative structure.