Short film review: Night Terrors

Text © Richard Gary / Indie Horror Blog, 2013
Images from the Internet

 

Night Terrors
Written, co-produced, FX artist, camera operator and directed by Felix Alvarez
Odd Jobs Productions
Lost Cosmonaut Productions
9:11 minutes, 2012 / 2013
www.nightterrors-movie.com

You certainly gain a lot of bang for your lack of buck on this free short film, available on the Website listed above. It may be under 10 minutes, but you get creature effects, blood, nudity, and lots of digital gore. But let me back up a bit.

We first meet the lovely central character, listed only as the Woman (Krystal Lynn Hedrick) as she’s jogging through a park, the camera affectionately caressing her bit by bit as she bounces along. There is also the scary guy watching her, making lewd faces. You know he’s foreboding because his dark hair is stereotypically slicked back, and he has black circles around his eyes. Essentially, he looks like he stepped out of the film Equinox (1970), or a goth band.

The film is mostly silent, relying on body movement and expression, with rare exception. The best allowance of dialog is while we watch a scene from a film the woman sees on television, called Bloody Mary, which is short, sweet and bloody. Here is where we get the first taste of the heavy use of digital gore.

I promise I won’t delve into the story much, but it’s a totally enjoyable nearly 10 minutes. Yes, there is a strong reliance on cliché, such as the abovementioned greasiness, and the creature make-up is, well, you can see it in the poster, and I can think of three other films off the top of my head that used a very similar style. But for this budget, I have to say it not only looks good, but it “moves” on the villain’s (Izzy Martinez) face well. Special nods to the way they digitally made his mouth enlarge when he is snarling, reminding me a bit of Grave Encounters (2011).

There is definitely a large Latino contingent on this piece, from both behind and in front of the camera, which is not only great, but hardly surprising considering it was essentially put together by the Alvarez brothers, Felix, Alex and Victor (well, I am assuming they are kin). I’ve always liked that about Robert Rodriguez, for example.

Being so short and having two parts to it (the main thread and Bloody Mary), I almost get the feeling that this short is going to be either used to get funding to create it into a longer piece, or reshot once the finances are in place. Either way, I hope this was a good learning experience for the Alvarezes, and they use what they’ve learned to further their work. But no matter what happens going forward, this is worth the viewing.