Wednesday 11 December 2013

Contact (2009) - Short Horror Film Review


Once upon a time Jeremiah Kipp contacted me to tell me about his three short films; Drool, Crestfallen, and Contact. As is often the way I was heading back through my list of things to do and noticed Contact had yet to be seen. Off my day job due to a flu thing I decided to check it out. Clocking in at 11 minutes Contact is a journey down the rabbit hole of drug use.

Bookended between scenes of an elderly couple anxiously awaiting the arrival of someone is the tale of a young couple who purchase some strange medication from a surreal drug dealer. As the trip starts all seems well but soon the woman falls into the realm of nightmares.


Shot in black and white it looks great, especially the special effects (mouth tunnel!) which I reckon would not look as good if in colour. The black and white also creates a sense of a dream world. The main female lead (Zoe Daelman Chlanda) is well cast and believable as someone experiencing the dark side of which ever drug she has taken, the descent into madness she finds herself in encapsulates you the viewer as well, really like I was a fly on the wall in the characters mind.

Contact has a lot of style to it that is perfectly supplemented by the locations chosen. The drug den is plain surreal, while the pictures and paintings of the room the couple take the drugs in seem to amplify the effects with some decent camera work, meanwhile the house of the elderly couple is immaculate and manages to seem the most other worldly due to its jarring appearance after the roller-coaster of madness has been done with.


Another well made decent short, found myself liking this far more than I felt I would, arty, but not too arty. Contact can be seen here if you so wish.

SCORE:

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