CREAK

CREAK (2011)
UK
Directed by Luther Bhogal-Jones

CAST:
Sarah T Douty - Heather
Sheila Stout - Ellen
Toby Lewis-Hammond - The Pioneer

PLOT:
     It's 4 a.m. and somewhere, something has opened.

REVIEW:
     Director Luther Bhogal-Jones sent me a email Sunday about his short film Creak. And as I said in a earlier post that if a director sends me his or her work I'll try to review or post about it as soon as I can. I think with Creak, it will be the fastest turn-around I've had for something to review. So either I'm getting better at writing the reviews or I just know how to manage the time it takes more friendly to myself.

     Sarah T Douty as Heather does a pretty good job as someone that doesn't quite feel safe in her house after she's woken up from her slumber. She plays sleepy very well as her acting is believable as someone who knows something isn't right yet decides to ignore her intuition so where she can fall back asleep. Her partner Ellen, played by Sheila Stout, I can't quite say the same for though. To me, something just seems off in her acting. Yes Stout can do pissed off very well, as I would be if I was woken up to check a house at 4 a.m. in the morning, yet with that there's also a tiredness that isn't present in her acting that is in Douty's though. It's as if Stout really doesn't want to be where she's at. The only time she actually seems alive is when her character Ellen is making fun of Heather for jumping at turned door knob.

     I want to mention two things that bugged me a little bit before I mention what I really like about the short. The first one is the sound editing. For the most part the sound is actually quite good throughout the short, except for in two scenes where the sound from the on camera mic comes through quite loud and then disappears. The second is there a editing jump in the film where it was just a little bit jolting. The story for Creak was actually pretty tight with not a lot of unnecessary dialogue and it moves at a pretty fast pace. The shots are well set and tries to get the best of both actresses. But the one thing that stuck out to me more than anything else in the short is The Pioneer. I loved the design of it as what is a throwback to the creatures of the 70's and 80's as to what I can only describe as a cross between the Tall Man and a Dalek if it had a love affair with a Cyberman from the Doctor Who T.V. series. Even though The Pioneer is mostly in shadows most of the time it shown, it's presence once it appears on screen is ever present even when it's sticking to the shadows and not shown. If you can get a good look at it, it's actually quite staggering as how well a simple design can have a large impact. Creak is a fun five minute short that is easy on the eyes while also ratcheting up the tension with use of classic film build up technique.

BEST DEATH:
     Nope won't find that here this time.

BEST LINE:
     Someone could be in the house.

FUN FACTS:
     Luther Bhogal-Jones has two more shorts in the pipeline for this year. One is Extended and the other is Knock Knock.