Plot Synopsis:
Tortured by guilt, Taylor (Todd Bruno) seeks to hide his sin in hopes that it will become another dirty little secret. However, as he begins to see menacing visions and the line between reality and paranoia becomes blurred, his plans quickly unravel. Also starring Brigitte Kali Canales.
Official Trailer:
Full Review:
That’s right! Another short film review!! My exams are coming up in the next couple of weeks so chances are the number of short film reviews will be significantly high until the end of June. Blimey! That’s a long time!! I understand, but at least I will still be posting! I was thinking about going on hiatus but I couldn’t even dream about doing that to you guys (despite my education and future being at stake), so if anything you should thank me!! Anyways, here’s my review of Ryan Connolly’s Tell.
Directed by the Film Riot frontman and released in 2012, Tell is a lengthy short horror film, clocking in at around 30 minutes, that will no doubt satisfy fans of the genre through it’s handling of suspense and tension, and most certainly will please the rest of the movie loving population through the array of talent scattered in each frame despite the occasional flaw. Long story short, this is a good film!!
First and foremost, I should say one thing. Horror is a fading genre. Now obviously horror movies are being released all the time, with this year already been subject to the dreadful Devil’s Due and the pathetic Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones. But the problem is that good horror films are very rare nowadays since Hollywood is unfortunately relying on jump scares and loud noises in order to ‘scare’ an audience. Remember, there’s a difference between startling an audience and flat out scaring them!
Thankfully, Mr. Connolly understands this and takes advantage of it to a wonderful degree, by not filling his picture with undeserving pop outs and opting out of using grotesque images to conjure up reaction. Instead, he focuses on building tension and trying to creep us out to the max. A lot of Connolly’s shots linger on for quite a bit, which heightens the tension even further to the point where it could be cut with a butter knife. AAGGH! Sorry for the writing cliché!!! I should be burned at the stake for that.. AAAGGH! More writing clichés!!
Speaking of clichés, Tell very cleverly recognises the clichés that plague the horror genre and turns them on their heads, which not only makes me, a cinema fanatic that has seen these clichés done to death, appreciate the film even more it also makes it even scarier because you are not sure which path the film is gonna take. But do you want to know what else is scary? The acting talent!!
And what’s even scarier is the generic set-up for this paragraph! But in all seriousness, Todd Bruno (who also stars in Connolly’s other short Proximity) brings to the table his many years of expertise to give us a chilling, tortured and somehow sympathetic performance as the very complex-in-nature character Taylor; maintaining suspense through moments where his deeply layered psychological ordeal is slowly unfolding before us. The other actors, whom are small in quantity, do a fine job but I feel they don’t necessarily meet the standards of Bruno. Granted, they don’t get as much to work with but nevertheless the way they treat the material they are given isn’t handled as sublimely.
I keep mentioning how suspenseful and tense this film is but I should point out an underlying factor that makes the film so successful in this area. Tell wouldn’t be as suspenseful as it is without Daniel James’s slowly building yet pulsing soundtrack which moulds the main backbone of the film. Chords are struck only when they are needed and there is a surprising attention to detail in how the score compliments each particular scene. Watching and listening to Tell is a terrifying and nail-biting pleasure.
Of course, the film isn’t perfect; one issue is incredibly minor and the other a little bit larger. I felt that during a couple of scenes the tension drooped down a little, like a thin fibre string being stretched taught but then slowly loosened as the hands come to meet each other once again. Check me out with my hyperboles!! As I was saying, with tension this high being held onto throughout this much of a runtime, it felt somewhat out of place to be able to breathe normally! And I also sensed some jittery camera movement during some elaborately choreographed shots, which shamefully took me out of the film for a little bit. On such a low budget, of course Tell wasn’t going to be a technical and/or figurative masterpiece but these issues still need to be addressed as it is still Connolly’s contribution to short film cinema.
But at the end of the day, this is a film worthy of your time. If you’re a horror fan, you may have already seen this but even if you have, watching it for a second time may just prove to be beneficial in deciphering the scenes which expertly blur the lines between psychotic delusion and harsh reality. I know I benefited from it! And if haven’t seen this, then you will experience a eerie tale of terror that plays with your mind like a game of Scrabble, in which many events will stick in your mind long after the end credits.
Fergie’s Final Fifteen:
A frighteningly fulfilling horror that taunts the psychological mind and greatly gratifies the inner soul.
Rating:
A-
Check out the link below to watch Tell in it’s entirety and comment down below to tell me what you thought of it. And don’t worry guys. Next week, I’m gonna share with you a review that I just can’t wait to write. Trust me, you’ll know what I mean soon!!
FERGIE FILMS 