Strawberry Spring

I saw this short and frankly, I was disappointed. The film was all right, but it kind of felt like it was the same throughout it. Like every scene and narration was the same. But I was not letting that get to me because; being a HUGE fan of the short story (in Stephen King's collection Night Shift), I was expecting the powerhouse twist ending.

It didn't come.

I won't spoil it, but I will just say that the story and movie did end the same, but the way they got to the ending was MUCH different. The story had a VERY strong and surprising ending; the short film did not. So my first reaction after seeing it was, "They screwed it up!" (I did use a harsher word than "screwed").

A tremendous rendition by (I presume) a young filmmaker. Good writing and quality, although the soundtrack music is a little loud at times.

Another successful King dollar baby. King fans should seek it out as interesting representation of this story, while those interested in short films will find a good, solid and well presented short story.

Considering that it's a dollar-baby, it's very professional done, technical and all, but they should have made it longer. It's too short. It's quite moody and a bit spooky at places, and you begin to warm up and really enjoying what you see, and boom, it's over. It's pretty close to Stephen King's story, but it leaves too much out. 8 minutes was an appropriate length for Paranoid, another and better dollar-baby, but not this time around.

I read the short story a few years ago and still remember the King "twist" at the end. This story seems to have done what Hollywood has done and just exploited King's name for attention while ruining the source material...I won't ruin the ending but it is vastly different from the story and so the story no longer makes sense.

Overall, for a student film, this was beautifully shot and I was impressed with the visuals. However, the story - at only 8 minutes - really drags due to a narrator who seems to be sleeptalking and nothing happens in the story that makes it seem worth watching. Like I say, I was disappointed, and not only because I know the source material, but even if I had never read the story before the film alone was dull, just atmospheric but nothing else.

Final Verdict: Read the story instead.