The Ghosts

The atmosphere of "50 s is the basic source of seduction for this beautiful short film, reflecting, in same measure, the teenager relations, air of town, the love story, the birth of an legend. Sure, the best part remains the gorgeous cinematography. But, maybe, more significant is the performance. For young actors. In construction of story. And delicacy of final scene. Short, ressurection of memories. And a splendid work.

Although there is a supernatural suggestion in the title and in the manner in which the gang called The Ghosts arrive in the girl's small town, this isn't a ghost story but rather a coming of age story where a young woman finds love and excitement in the arms of a "bad boy" and his gang in what appears to be the 1950's of James Dean and Marlon Brando. The story follows this doomed relationship and it is actually very engaging and involving in how it unfolds, with all the drama and incident of a full length film covering the same topic – but yet neatly condensed into just 14 minutes.

What makes it really work though is the delivery, because this is a short film that really captures the "feel" and time of films like Rebel Without a Cause but does it in a way that is also creative and uniquely of this short; it never feels like this is a clever copy of something else. The grainy black and white combined with the shot selection and cinematography is what does it – it looks very cool and is very effective in terms of creating a place and informing the viewer (by virtue of this) what sort of people we are dealing with – because the film so perfectly captures this stereotype of the film that we "get" the unspoken – saving time and adding to the delivery.

The cast are really good within this; the costumes help them but I did really enjoy the lead turn from Kate Cobb and she held my attention across her character. Frank is dangerous but has a soft side and Koch does this well while Guimon is equally good as the spoilt kid who tries to spoil it all. O'Keefe deserves a lot of credit not just for the delivery of the film but for getting everyone on board with his vision – nobody or no aspect breaks the idea, it all delivers.

Really cool and enjoyable short film – well worth checking out.