Tags:
Film: Friends Forever
Year: 2023
Director: Thomas Angeletti
Writers: Jared Richard Acker, Thomas Angeletti and Paige Hoover
Starring: Ashlee Lawhorn, Colleen O’Morrow and Mark Murtha
Review:
This is a short that I got the chance to see thanks to actor Timothy J. Cox. He appears in the cold open here. Since I like to support independent horror cinema, I agreed to check out this short for review. Other than that, I came into this one blind.
Synopsis: on a fall day in October 1987, a group of college friends find an abandoned house and throw a party they’ll never forget.
Now our cold open is from 1957. There is a family of farmers. The father is portrayed by Cox. His wife is Julie Carney. They have two children, Kevin Rife and Christy Carson. Tragedy strikes when the father goes to pick an ear of corn and it is rotten. He brings it in to show mother. She goes upstairs, puts on white gloves and kills her family. She places them around the table and puts on music.
We then shift to the present which is 1987. That’s where we meet Cassandra (Ashlee Lawhorn), Erica (Colleen O’Morrow), Ryan (Mark Murtha) and Lisa (Paige Hoover). They come to this house, which still oddly has items from the past set up. Erica didn’t go away to college so now that everyone is home, she wants to throw the party from the synopsis. Something doesn’t feel right here to Cass, but they all agree. What should be a great time is a nightmare.
That is where I’ll leave my recap and introduction to the characters. What I’ve given is probably half of this short. I thought it was set up nicely. We get the cold open, then we meet our group in 87 and then it’s the party. I’ll give credit here; we got enough extras that it feels real. I’ve seen movies with bigger budgets that try to do this, but it doesn’t work so I wanted to credit that.
Now for shorts, I tend to judge them if they tell a complete story or if I think they need to be fleshed out into more. I think that for this one, we’re getting the former. We know that tragedy struck in the 1950s. It isn’t explained why the mother snaps and kills her family. Since the corn is rotting, my guess was that she was afraid that they would starve due to a bad harvest. My other thought was the toxin that comes from rotting corn made her go crazy. The only issue there is prolonged exposure if memory serves.
Seeing what we got in that opening, I wasn’t sure then if this was going to be a haunted house film. There are elements of that. What I like though is that it shifts into another subgenre that I don’t want to spoil. There is a good reason for the motives with a certain character. Also, the past is influencing it as well. I do have to say there was a questionable decision that I needed just a bit more for. In my opinion, this short needed a couple plot aspects that would be a minute or two and it tells a complete story. It isn’t ruined without them though.
What also helps here is the acting. I like Lawhorn as this lead who knows something is wrong but can’t figure out what it is. The house for the party is uncomfortable. It is also during the party she notices something. I like O’Morrow and where her character ends up. She has interesting growth that I didn’t expect. Murtha and Hoover were good as the two to round out the group. I like Carney, Cox, Rife and Carson feel like this family from the past. Then other than that, the attendees of the party were distinct and worked for what was needed.
All that is left then is filmmaking. I thought that the cinematography was good here. The past is in black and white, with the present in color. I thought that was a good touch. I also thought how things were framed were good. No issues there. I also liked the fact that they went practical with all the effects that they could. If there was any CGI there, I didn’t notice it so credit to them. Other than that, the soundtrack and design were good. I did like this old victrola playing music as it gives an eerie vibe that helps build the atmosphere.
In conclusion, this is a solid short film. I think that this tells a compete story, which can be hard to do for a short film. I do think that it is missing a couple story elements that would help. They’re not necessarily needed though. I thought that the actors fit the characters that are needed. Special credit to Lawhorn and O’Morrow. I thought that this was well-made from the cinematography to the effects and the old-time song used. I’d recommend this short if you want to see a haunting of sorts, just used in a different way. Just keep in mind, this isn’t working with a large budget, but to be honest, it didn’t need it either.
My Rating: 7 out of 10