Getting any film made is extremely difficult. Films made in the independent space are a product of passion, determination, and often a lot of self-funding. This is particularly true for short films that, outside of a few grants or robust crowd funding efforts, tend to be funded fully by their filmmakers. The benefit is that the people involved in the projects are passionate and want to make something good. A drawback is that because these projects rely on reducing costs, they tend to become auteur-driven projects, which can have mixed results. The Recipient is a promising short written, directed, produced, edited, and filmed by Michael Marentette, that could have benefited from creative collaborators.
The Recipient is a fun short horror concept that opens with a visually interesting POV sequence that brings the audience into the house that the film is set. However, once we settle into the body of the first main scene, the first technical problem of the film quickly becomes apparent. The scene is accompanied by the background sounds of thunder claps, to try and add eerie suspense to the scene, however, they are the same thunder claps, over and over again. So, rather than heighten the tension, they take the wind (or the thunder) out of the film’s sails. This was the first instance of repetition in the film, but there would also be instances of repetitive dialogue, which could have been cut and reduced the length of the short and heightened the tension.
The script is fun and the first half plays with conventions and expectations. It wants you to think Will and Rita are a couple when we meet them, and whose engagement party was just held, only to reveal that Rita is engaged to a man named James who missed the party due to a flight delay. There’s also the implication that they are alone after they see the last guest out, but then after the reveal they aren’t a couple, they reveal their other friend, Jill, is also still there. With the creepy POV shot that began the film, you perhaps start to wonder if maybe James’ flight wasn’t delayed until Jill pulls an engagement gift from someone who shouldn’t be able to send them a gift.
Now once we get to the mid-point, the horror conventions take over and that’s where it feels like Marentette and others had a lot of fun. The camera is not afraid to get close to the cast to get interesting shots, and there is a lot of play with shadow and light. The playing with fire and candle light is so nice in the sequence as it breaks up shots that live in the modern that use of the phone flashlight that I didn’t even mind that the only indication we were previously given of candles or fireplaces being lit in the house were a couple of lone candles in the kitchen. There is one shot in particular, where a candle is blown out, that I came back to, because it stood out. It’s a great shot and it’s built on some good horror beats leading up to it. However, the audience is ahead of the characters in the sequence preceding the shot and I’m always of two minds about this, particularly in horror because when the audience is ahead of the characters the audience doesn’t get to be scared with the characters, however, there is a sweetness, in waiting for the what you know to be revealed to the character.
Overall, a fun horror short film that could have perhaps been a little shorter and had a more varied sound design.
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