TEDDY: IT'S GONNA BE A BEAR

TEDDY: IT'S GONNA BE A BEAR (2011)
US
Directed by Steve Goltz

CAST:
Keegan Bergen - Teddy
Kirk Gilbert - Jeff
Mike Goltz - Clay!

PLOT:
     The story of four college students that get more than the bargained for when a hit-and-run accident turns into murder.

REVIEW:
      Kevin Sommerfield sent me an email about this short asking me if I would want to do a review for it. Well, I make it a point if someone sends me a link or a screener for their short or feature film to make sure to try and review it. One of the things that caught my attention with this one is that while I was reading the press kit it said that the short was a throwback to the 80's slasher films. So with that I was interested. Now the question remains, can it live up to the claim its made?

     Wherever they filmmakers found Mike Goltz, who plays Clay, they found someone that you love to hate. Goltz just plays the asshole, neanderthalic so well, you have to wonder if Goltz is really that way in real life. His character is reprehensible and a full blown asshole. He wears his shirt open at all times, when he actually wears a shirt, and when he does it's usually covered in spilled beer that drooled out of his mouth. Even though the short is called Teddy, it could have easily have been called Clay, as I could have watched two hours of Clay's misadventures as he was the most interesting character in the whole film. On the other hand is Kirk Gilbert who plays Jeff. Gilbert is just unpleasant as the supposedly shy friend. It's if you can tell that Gilbert is the opposite way in real life than his character is and just doesn't know how to play withdrawn and meek. And it shows.  The rest of the cast does a decent job with the roles they were giving as they neither stood out to much or did a bad job of acting either.

     On the other side of the camera, I have to thank director Steve Goltz on some of the decisions that were made while making this short. First things first. Thank you for not using any visible CG in you short. This, to me, makes or breaks a movie these days because everyone thinks it's easier to just put in animated blood instead of taking time and realizing that CG blood looks terrible while practical effects add a greater depth of realism. Also the actors react more realistically to it because they can see it. Another choice Goltz went with that made this a fun watch is the choice of not to actually show the deaths on screen, just the after effects of them. This might have been due to money constraints, yet thanks to this the film works better than it should. Even though story is somewhat generic it works decently thanks to this being a throwback type of story, or a love letter to the 80's style slashers flicks that permeated that era. Unfortunately  it also has the same flaws as those stories do also, the main one is Teddy, the character, just isn't really that scary. But yet it's the character of Clay that raises this short above just being a so-so watch.

BEST DEATH:
     Dana's splitting headache in the frozen snow.

BEST LINE:
     You wanna fuckin' touch him? That's what I thought.

FUN FACTS:
     Shot over the course of four days and three nights.

     A freak blizzard caused writers Steve Goltz and Kevin Sommerfield to rewrite entire portions of the script the day of filming.

     The sex scene between Clay and Dana was shot in a tent in the living room of the cabin used for the finale.