Directed by: Philip Brocklehurst Written by: Muhammad Holmatov Genre: Horror |
Lock The Door
A man comes home from wherever and does what most of us do. Settle in and sit down to watch some television. In this case a movie. What he doesn't know is that someone is coming for him. Someone with a knife - much like they do in proper horror films. This man should know how things work, as he has an extensive movie collection - and by the posters in his house, love horror movies.
As I expected right from the start, this man gets killed by a mask wearing, knife wielding killer. If the title didn't give it away, the first thirty seconds surely did. Lock The Door sounds like a run of the mill horror flick and I'll admit it does follow the troupes associated with the genre. Even if in a badly mimicked way. With a length of under 7 minutes, even that feels really long. I expect Philip Brocklehurst and Muhammad Holmatov were trying to pay homage to classic slashers, but only succeeded in getting a huge groan and occasional chuckle out of me. This title suffers from much more than being a micro/no budget short film. It is borderline ridiculous in nature and only offers a decent background score to redeem it even a little. First, the camera work is is a vomit fest waiting to happen. Mostly hand held but that's not even the biggest problem. The in/out of focus and hugely grainy shots, along with the shake and wobble, made my head spin. But even this technical element didn't cement my rating. It was the overall presentation. It was simply really strange. There is a lot of unneeded stuff here. Overly indulgent filler shots bloat this title. Really? I needed to see a dozen or more quick shots of your the collection in your room, and posters - to understand the character likes movies? 1 or 2 shots would have done the trick just fine. The same as all the repeating shots of the stairs and street and room, etc. The 7 minutes could have easily been reduced to 5 - and made the film a little more polished. Even all that isn't what I found the most annoying. It was the character, the Victim as he's listed. This character was just much to unbelievable. In the film, this man is talking to himself. Now in the form of narration - to let us know what he's thinking. He's literally talking to himself the whole time. I almost burst out laughing, out loud, when the main character scratches his chin, looks up in the air and proclaims: Hmmmm. Did I remember to lock the door? There's more, because this guy loves to hear his own voice. But the entire sound and feel of it all completely counters what the music and movie is trying to do. I'm assuming the filmmaker is just getting into the game and Lock The Door is going to help in a lot of ways. Experience makes the filmmaker. Imagination and a love for making movies go a long way, but it's the experience that really counts. Nobody starts making great films without a few to learn from first. Keep fighting the good fight and I look forward to seeing what the future holds. |
