At 06:31 in the morning, a man gets up to do his daily jog as part of the advice of his doctor. Ignoring his wife's advice to 'relax more', he takes his vitamins, drinks a shake and starts his run. When he is overtaken by a slightly younger jogger dressed all in black, he turns it into a small race, a race he is very pleased to easily win. However, whenever the mysterious jogger comes back at him, the simple race quickly becomes a deadly game of chase in the local woods.
I was just thinking about this film a few days ago and wondering how on earth I'd ever see it again having only chanced upon it well over a decade ago when all of a sudden a short film I taped (sight unseen) turned out to be The Jogger (it was in the listings as 'short film'). I have seen many short film from this production company and usually they all fall into the same mould but I was very glad to see The Jogger try a different style. The plot is pretty basic and it will be no surprised to anyone to learn that the mysterious jogger is not actually a real man – in fact it is my belief that he is none other than death himself. In that regard the film is made more interesting as our man manages to put death off and evade him for a while but, ultimately, he cannot escape him forever.
In this way it is perfect short film stuff – quirky plot, simple delivery and a good (if predictable) ending. The delivery is what makes it and it is directed with a steady hand that produces reasonable tension throughout. O'Quinn is a recognisable face (Alias, X-Files etc) and he does well in the lead, however the actual jogger himself is not mysterious enough – he doesn't have enough screen presence to really care the role but he does well enough I suppose.
Overall this is an enjoyable short even if it has dated and lost much of the surprise that it may once have had. When I first saw this a decade ago I was blown away by it to the point that I still remembered it all this time later – however, watching it again it didn't quite have the same effect even if it was still enjoyable. A good idea with a clever (if obvious) meaning that makes it more interesting, all delivered by a good writer/director and a strong lead performance from Terry O'Quinn.
