Slash-in-the-Box

Most horror shorts show their low budget with bad lighting, poor acting, and/or cheap effects.

Slash-In-The-Box wins on all fronts. At five minutes, it runs the risk of being too long for a "hit viral video" but the pacing is excellent, and it never feels like it's dragging. The actors look great, the cinematography is beautiful, and while the jump scares may not work as well as the director probably imagines, the last shot is the payoff that the entire piece builds toward, and it works wonderfully. In fact, I'm not sure how they did it, but it's a neat bit of effects magic.

This is a perfect example of a simple concept executed extremely well. The director and his team (including Producer/DP Leigh Scott of Transmorphers infamy) come from a sordid history of terrible DTV schlock, but they seems to be making up for it here. Can't wait to see what else these filmmakers have up their sleeves.

Given Nick's The Asylum background, I was expecting over the top cheesy-ness. What we get is, well, funny... but not really that cheesy. Improbable... but definitely creepy. I think its OK to jump, laugh, and get a little grossed out is what I mean (btw, the best effects detail was the spray of blood when the box opened). If a low budget truly is an exercise in how to produce a quality film then Nick should win awards for making it look easy. Slash-in-the-box is everything you expect only better. Of course it can't be perfect or else it wouldn't be low budget. Which means it's familiar subject matter presented exactly how you want to see it with a bonus and in this case that's a good thing.

As far as clichés go, Slash-in-the-Box has them all: possessed toys, ball bouncing down stairs, hot female lead, wise-ass male lead, clowns, overly- curious characters, and wondering a dark house at night (though they actually turned a light on which is unheard of).

There were a couple clever scenes but aside from that there's not much to be gained from watching this. A couple jumpscares might get you here and there but personally I loath jumpscares and think they're very short- lasting and uncreative ways to scare your audience. The gore wasn't too overdone, as I would've expected it to be in such a cliché of a short.

Overall it wasn't bad though, the cinematography, acting and special effects were actually really good, the story and idea itself were just very dull and the methods to convey said story and idea were way too cliché for my liking.

For a 5 minute feature, you get the initial feeling that you may be disappointed in how the horror is going to develop, but as soon as you hit play, Slash-in-the-Box delivers like a full length horror feature. Overall the film has an 80's, early 90's horror atmosphere to it and you can tell that's what the director was attempting to accomplish, despite the very modern surroundings. The pacing was surprisingly good, considering there was only 5 minutes to progress the plot in. The acting was another plus. The actors did a great job of making their characters believable in the short amount of time they were on screen. The title object was also a great, creepy pick on the director's behalf. He's got the evil clown thing nailed. All in all, if you want a great five minutes of good, old fashioned horror, then Slash-in-the-Box is a great pick.

Seductive construction. for a story who gives crumbs of childhood memories, interest for each reaction of actors , the care for details and something else, escaping for the cliches. or, more exactly, using them in smart way. a film who has the gift to remind a sort of precise rules of a game. nothing improvised, all expected. and a box. nothing more. but enough for a real good show.