fastfoodi

Completely derivative, and not very rewarding. Although the talent of the filmmakers involved is evident, they sabotage themselves by working with completely empty content. Badly written, badly acted and repetitive, the film failed to justify its running time. THE DEAD OUTSIDE works for about 15 minutes, after which its lack of momentum makes it hard to sit through. I suspect it would probably have made a good short film, however.

It has been mentioned that the film "expects a lot from its audience", but this isn't quite true. There was far too much exposition in some scenes. The characters and their stories are simply not very interesting. It's a common thing to see in an indie, but the extent to which bad acting can weigh down even a good script *cannot* be overstated. I'm sure THE DEAD OUTSIDE will be the cast and crew's ticket to bigger/better things, but as a cinema experience it simply is not up to par.

I'll try and contextualize my score by listing scores for the last couple of indies I've seen:

RULE OF THREE (Eric Shapiro). Good acting for an indie. Reasonably good Script. Terribly shot, terrible music. 5/10

INK (Jamin Winans). Some pretty good ideas, hugely ambitious and elaborate production. Weak execution and bad acting. 5/10

SHALLOW GROUND (Sheldon Wilson). A bloody mess. Nonsensical plot. An exercise in pointlessness. 3/10

THE DEAD OUTSIDE (Kerry Anne Mullaney). A technically competently lensed film, but lacking any real focus or originality. Badly acted, boring script, repetitive sound design. 4/10

GALA (dir. Masahiro Maeda) 7/10 Conventional tale in the vein of PRINCESS MONONOKE, but with a poignant and redeeming conclusion. Its traditional visual style and eco-friendly message makes this short the most accessible of the bunch.

JIGEN BAKUDAN (DIMENSION BOMB) (dir. Kôji Morimoto) 9/10 A somewhat abstruse sci-fi story told via awesome, highly stylized animation by the director of BEYOND. Powerful post-apocalyptic imagery and a pounding techno soundtrack make this the best entry of the lot.

MOONDRIVE (dir. Kazuto Nakazawa) 6/10 Manga-styled comic animation about a ragtag group of individuals on a weird hunt for a treasure-map. The distinct visual style is interesting but film remains ultimately less engaging than it should be.

WANWA THE DOGGY(dir. Shinya Ohara) 8/10 Genuinely unique visuals employed flawlessly in a tale about a small child lost in the surreal world of his over-active imagination. This one reminded me quite a bit of HAPPY MACHINE from GENIUS PARTY.

TOUJIN KIT (dir. Tatsuyuki Tanaka) 7/10 A subdued story about a girl raising strange creatures in hiding, in a society where they are considered harmful and hunted down by the law. Various common police-state themes abound. Although slick presentation fails to raise this one above par, it remains extremely watchable.

FINAL SCORE: 7/10 Shorter and less satisfying than its predecessor, but still easy to recommend. A must for animation fans.