The Candidate

Ever hated somebody so much that you wanted them dead? It is the basic idea that makes "The Candidate" so undeniably interesting. This rich, multi-layered short film plays with the basic morality battles that we find ourselves dealing with every day. The hate that the main character feels is thick and delicious. We allow ourselves to like this man because we've been there too! We want him to succeed because he's worked hard and he deserves to win. And yet, shouldn't we feel bad?

This man represents those vices that we so ardently profess to abhor! He is greedy, sneaky, underhanded, conniving, vicious (just look at the slow motion shot of him scream as his cheeks become the fierce jowls of a voracious predator). We should see this man in action and care nothing for him, but then again, there but for the grace of God, go I.

This is one of those films which leaves you craving more, and I hope we get it one day. Director David Karlak gives us a delicious taste of a dark world. It just happens to be set in an office!

My advice? Go find it, watch it, savor it. It's good filmmaking.

Believe me. Once you've tasted it, you'll realize what you've been missing.

This is sort of out of the old Twilight Zone camp. A man is recruited by another man (Robert Picardo). He is told of an organization that brings about the deaths of people by simply praying that they will die. Our guy is whiny man who blames others for his lack of success. He is petty and small and a coward. He believes that one man in the company is his nemesis. This rolls along with suspense and then we find out something interesting.

I see a lot of "sniffing" reviews. The kind that write this off as an episodic tv show flashback. The Twilight Zone might be the correct genre, but that is no reason to denigrate the piece. I am willing to bet that this one will hold up as well in 50 years too.

Robert Picardo stars in this short film as a mysterious man with an interesting proposal to a frustrated businessman. Dialogue is lean and to the point. Not a wasted word. Good cinematography and sound. Interesting premise. Hard to really classify this as horror or sci-fi... Maybe short mystery thriller? Can be found on YouTube, Dust, and various other media sites. Well worth the time to watch.

THE CANDIDATE seems to have garnered a lot of praise on this page being a dark exploration of human nature set against the background of corporate capitalism . I'm being extremely contrarian when I say wasn't all that impressed by it . It's by no means dreadful but as Bob said it's very much like one of those stories you might have seen in THE TWILIGHT ZONE or in an American version of TALES OF THE UNEXPECTED

David Karlak uses an all too obvious directorial technique in order to tell the story , one of constant incidental music that is both intrusive and manipulative which outlasts its welcome . He also uses a bit too much close up in order try and get a sense of mounting tension . That said one thing that is impressive from a technical viewpoint is the editing especially at the end as the last scenes are cut with the titles .

The story itself revolves around the denouement where the rug is well and truly pulled out from the audiences feet and I wasn't able to second guess the twist at the end , but sadly the story only exists because of the twist . It's interesting that the audience will no doubt be on the side of Burton since most of us will be relatively low on the work ladder and hold grudges against those higher up . This is the problem Burton is shown to do nothing to make himself any enemies and the narrative suffers from a lack of show don't tell . As it stands THE CANDIDATE is okay but never really a candidate for classic short film