SHORT: Drive Safe: A Short Horror Film

One man's opinion, for what it's worth :). As so often, the film was technically just fine. Nothing wrong with it. Nothing extraordinary, although I liked that it was lit competently and without major mistakes. The acting was good - she's a good actress, hang onto her :)

Now the content. It just didn't work for me - but that might be more me than anything else, because I didn't find the Lights Out short particularly gripping either. So this might just be an issue of my predilections, taste and reaction. That said, the electric thing was a major letdown. You didn't prepare us for anything "supernatural" - when she enters the car, our universe of fear is circumscribed to the conventional possibilities in such a situation "someone in the back seat, someone jumping out onto the road, someone rushing the car etc." All more or less real-world fear that have some semblance of reality. Therefore, when you see that the problem - at least initially, is that somehow she loses electric power in both car and phone, it is OUTSIDE our universe of expectation, an outright sci-fi or ghost element, and therefore comes as a unwelcome surprise and for me at least an eyeroller "oh, it's supernatural!" - and the tension immediately is deflated, since I might fear a real killer, but laugh at ghosts and tall tales. Note, that this is different from the Lights Out short, where they immediately take care of our expectations by introducing the supernatural into the universe of our fears - the spectral figure... so therefore we are primed to expect supernatural terror IMMEDIATELY - we buy the premise at that point, because that's the world YOU are describing. You must prepare the audience by introducing the world of premises first - how does this universe work... it's sci-fi or ghost, or what. We were not primed by you at all, and therefore it came as a ridiculous element "whaaaaa, supernatural, pffft" feeling completely out of left field. Imagine watching what you expect to be a conventional crime story and it works that way all the way until the payoff where the supernatural is suddenly introduced as an explanation - we are unprepared and it feels like a total cheat and letdown.

That right there kills it. But there was inconsistent and silly behaviour from the beginning. She didn't act out of natural motivation, but from the needs of the filmmaker. Just one example: when the car stops and won't start... realistically, who anywhere in the world thinks the natural reaction of a girl of that age is to go out and pop the hood of the car to look at the engine?? If she were a middle aged guy or some mechanic-looking fellow, that's realistic. But a girl of that age? And what was she expecting to see, logically - I mean it makes no sense... if the alternator died, how is looking at it going to fix it when she has no tools even... and do we believe that this girl would even know what an alternator is? What did she think she'd see under the hood - a big red arrow saying "pull this plug"? No way do we believe she'd leave the car for the reason of popping up the hood of all reasons in the world. There is a ton of such odd behaviours which are not true to life and therefore subtly undermine our involvement with the premise.

Then that final arms popping up to snatch at her, feels cheap and silly, not scary, just a waste. I tell you, it would have been more scary if those were human regular killer type arms - not ghostie or supernatural monster arms. But of course that's a supercheap trick "the guy in the back seat", and we'd wonder how she never saw him. Bottom line, it's a total artistic failure - FOR ME. But your milage may vary, and maybe others feel differently.

The big plusses are:

1)YOU MADE A FILM - KUDOS!!!!! This is major and sincere congratulations - most people only talk, never do

2)Technically quite competent

3)Good acting

The content is a FAILURE for me. Best of luck!
 
Hi man,

Thank you so much for this detailed feedback. As brutal as it is to hear I've learnt to take it over the years and truly value an audiences thoughts.

I think you're right about the super natural element. I should have set it up slightly earlier. It's definitely 'do-able' in 4 minutes of screen time.

You're the first person to mention how good the acting is. I met her over twitter a few weeks before the shoot and we've become good friends now. She's brill and I can't wait to work with her again.

Overall, thanks for watching and I can't wait to show you my next film. I'm sure it'll blow your socks off :)
 
Good to hear - it's important to keep working, and I'm glad to hear you have already planned your next one. I wish you lots of success!
 
Edit: ok, ok, sexist joke removed due to somebody's disapproval.

I liked the film, with my only comment being that the long profile shot near the end seemed to wander almost at random up and down. i.e. The camera operator was trying to guess when the phone and the face would each be important, without the appearance of a plan or coordination with the actress.

Nice work on the film.
 
Last edited:
charliemcdanger said:
Edit: ok, ok, sexist joke removed due to somebody's disapproval.

I liked the film, with my only comment being that the long profile shot near the end seemed to wander almost at random up and down. i.e. The camera operator was trying to guess when the phone and the face would each be important, without the appearance of a plan or coordination with the actress.

Nice work on the film.
Click to expand...

Haha, I missed the sexist comment. Probably a smart move to remove it.

The camera was purposely supposed to be wandering at the end to add to the anticipation of the scare. Maybe it could have been pulled off slightly better

Thanks for watching guys.
 
Hey CTbullet,

I agree with most of the comments above. I'm super critical on films when the character does something that in real life we just know they wouldn't do. For me this is the biggest let down for horrors. The characters become throw away and you actually want them to die.
Personally I didn't think the phone glitch and super natural vibe was as big an issue but definitely don't think it was needed.

Overall it was a fun little short but as someone else mentioned, very cliched. Looking forward to your next film.

Peter
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top