The Haunted Season

Fun, spooky watch! Love the Ghost Stories for Christmas vibe!

Altogether a great little short film. I loved the dialogue, reminded me of a H P Lovecraft story.

I usually love these sorts of smaller stories that focus on character and atmosphere and this one has a decent idea, but the story was derivative, the performances were one-note and obnoxiously hammy, and the dialogue felt like a college freshmen's first attempt at "old-timey" writing. The biggest issue was that the atmosphere was terrible due to the bright studio lighting on the actors and bad Halloween costumes with cheap LED lamps being carried by the characters, which the harsh digital black and white did very little to disguise. The whole thing feels like something you'd watch in a town theater production because your friend's dad is in it, and then at the end everyone would pretend they liked it and that he'll be a real actor someday. A lot of people seem to like this one, but something about it just grated on me from the first few minutes (the moment I got a whiff of faux-authenticity) and I tried to let it recover but it never really did - so, if you're like me and struggle through the corniness of the first five minutes, save yourself the remaining forty.

Basically, a well-acted and effectively shot period chamber play with a few SFX, "Burying Godot? James Swanton (Ransley) was especially good, given the stagey set-up: forget the Captain Jack Sparrow comments (and Johnny Depp); think more of a good Scrooge or Malvolio. I liked the authentic 17th c. language that popped up in the dialogue: "shabaroon" or "(sly) boots. " Lookiing forward to more of these, and thanks to the always awesome Severin, too!

I enjoyed this first episode! Now the wait for next year begins. . .