Zombies Take the Schoolyard

At first I didn't think I was going to like this short because the first minute or so was completely black with just sound. It got better once it got going. Two kids are stuck in a closet at school during a zombie attack caused by an acid rainstorm. One of the kids, Ralph, is older and a school news reporter (sorry I meant "Editor in Chief", as he sarcastically emphasizes). The younger kid, Scott, is more annoyed he's stuck in the closet with this older bully then he is about the monsters outside. Speaking of monsters, I liked that the zombies were teenagers, you don't really see that often. The make up was excellent, especially for such a low budget film. I don't want to give away what happens but the effects were pretty good and made me watch it twice to see them again. Both the boys are good actors and very believable. For a 10-minute short, they did a really good job of establishing the characters and having a conflict that wasn't just about surviving the zombie attack. All in all, a tight flick that's a little deeper than you usually find with low-budget horror.

This is a compelling, well-crafted short. I don't want to go into story details beyond saying it's about a couple of high-schoolers trapped in a janitor's closet during a zombie rampage. As to the writing, there's a convincing authenticity to the characters (and their dialogue) even in the midst of something as "inauthentic" as a zombie rampage, there's layered conflict that adds to the tension (our two heroes aren't exactly the best of friends at the beginning), there's a few amusing moments of humor that are nicely organic to the situation (I hate horror when it takes itself too seriously), and the filmmakers manage to conjure up a surprising amount of emotional connectivity to our heroes. On the technical front, everything's done superbly, from the directing/shooting to the editing to the sound design/effects; a lot of shorts in this genre try to go too "bleeding-edge" with things like the camera work (i.e, motion-sickness-inducing camera movements), but here the filmmakers wisely choose to keep things simple and clean and let the story and the characters do the talking. And, for a short, the special effects are kick-ass… great old-school practical F/X, which, in a horror movie, I think is almost always more frightening than anything a computer could whip up. In fact, the one weakness here is that I think the filmmakers should've gone further with their gore; it seems like they were trying for a PG-13-like vibe, and I think more rated-R carnage would've made this even more fun. Much looking forward to what Tuverson and friends cook up next!

This short kept me interested throughout the entire 10 minutes. It had some funny dialog and a lot of grotesque moments that made me say that's sick! The actors were young and played their teenage parts well. I would like to see more from this director and the cast in other films! It inspires me to see how with a little imagination and some great teamwork what people can put together! I liked how they ended it with a twist to show that there might be more to the story that we don't get to see. My favorite part of the film is well I'm not going to ruin it for you so just check it out for yourself and you'll see! The only thing I didn't like about the film was how short it was, I would like to see maybe a full length showing what happens to them before they get trapped in the closet. Besides that Great Job to everyone who was involved in this project.