Box

Self indulgence at the expense of a group of students weekend off... I assume thats how long it took to make this.

First of the warning signs for me was the Typical crap film, the single filming location. It signals no budget or even permission to film anywhere but their mates spare room. This barely works when it got really talented people working on it.

2nd warning sign was the long credits at the start, nothing hints at a low quality production than the actual makers of the thing not having the confidence that the audience is going to be around at the end (I wasnt) And 3rd warning sign is when the writer, director is also then star...

This is the type of stuff students make for a project and get a barely passing grade and never watch it again... the fact this appears on Prime Video is baffling as Im sure back in the day it wouldnt even get on the shelf in a poundshop.

A great film made by Matt Shaw and Maria. Really well done on the visuals and storytelling in this one. If you're a fan of films like Oldboy and Saw then you'll love this. Keep watching until the very end. You'll be pleasantly surprised.

About ten minutes in, I thought this was a duffer. I hated the voice outside of the box and the protagonist (who also wrote and directed it) wasn't really my cup of tea. It was taking me out of the moment and stopping me engaging, until.... it didn't. I suddenly found myself an hour in completely in the zone. I'm not claiming that it's incredibly well done or executed, because in a lot of ways it isn't. It probably didn't have a lot of money in its defence. But it pulled me along for the ride and I never got bored, which is impressive for a single person / location film. Not a bad time from Matt Shaw.

So Matt Shaw, stuck in a box for around 70 odd minutes... Doesn't sound the most promising, yet it all fits together extremely well.

The camerawork was claustrophobic and the editing was on point, never really giving any opportunity to let you get over the previous scene.

Shaw shows some good acting throughout, especially the more, gag enducing scenes. And holds up the movie alone very well.

There are some scenes I would love to comment on, but I do not want to spoil anything. This one is best to go into blind... And empty stomached.

Considering the small set and cast this works extremely well, and feels much bigger in terms of production value, than it probably is.

Very entertaining, can't wait for future work off Shaw and his team.

I read Matt Shaw's book years ago and read it again when he announced he was making it into a film. While the idea of the man being stuck in a box is the same, the reasons as to why he was in the box are different from film to box which caught me by a pleasant surprise as it meant I hadn't seen the ending coming. Nice to see Matt do more acting in this one although he has made it clear on his pages that it won't be something we see much of. Nice camera work and his direction is certainly getting stronger with each film he does. Looking forward to the next one which I also backed.