It is Halloween, the festive, carnivalesque spirit has begun to stretch out its limbs and before you know, three drunk men are lugging a metal post box-esque contraption across the corner of a street. Minor acts of vandalism are not stuff of nightmares, but this specific object soon becomes the MacGuffin of ‘Wastelanders’, propelling an unsuspecting man’s life into absolute chaos. 
 

As wonderfully bizarre as it sounds, this is the premise of the film, a complete punch of crime, action, thrill, all neatly packed within a few minutes. 

A drunken night with his friends has left Adam in possession of this mailbox that now needs to be taken care of. However, in the process, some important paperwork is also discarded with it. When Adam returns to retrieve it, a terrible development awaits him, and he gets swooped up in the rigmarole of a violent, criminal act that is threatening to run out of control. 

The consistency of the world conjured with the storytelling and characters, suffice to say, exhibits finesse in execution, approach and tonality. Despite the simultaneous development of the several events, the film upholds the lucidity of its plot, ensuring that the viewer is equally invested in each of these events. 'Wastelanders' is a well-handled film, leaving one with the prospect of more such storytelling by Patryk Terelak and Rockwell White.

Wastelanders  | Short Film of the Month

Audrey is out for a run with her dog, Gus. A seemingly regular affair, however, soon turns into something sinister when Gus runs deeper into the woods, ignoring all of Audrey's urgent calls.The narratorial progression takes place with an economy of dialogue, leaving the viewer to interact more with the ominous events developing before them, along with the sounds that accompany them. 
The plot continues to present question after question as Audrey sights an unusual presence in the woods. Much to her as well as the viewer's horror, Gus runs deeper into the foliage and emerges only after some time has passed. While his coat may be smeared with an unusual, strange substance, everything else still appears unscathed. And yet, Audrey is deeply disconcerted, also leaving the viewer aware of something being truly amiss. The various components of the narrative are presented thus, while being deliberately obscured by doubts and uncertainty. There is also the desire to experiment with visuals and the edit that sews them together. It is a welcome prospect to engage with subsequent parts of the story and unearth the direction it is eventually headed in.

Fleas | Short Film Nominee

The film is an engagement with a set of very strange events, meant to horrify and shock you. A woman called Jess is painting by herself atop a ridge when an unknown object falls from the sky. On closer examination, she finds it to be a suitcase which she chooses to bring back with her. 

 Through a conversation between Jess and her romantic partner, the proceedings so far are explained to the viewer. However, along with getting you on the same page as the protagonist, this conversation fulfils another purpose - it introduces you to the calmness and the nonchalance with which Jess is approaching the situation so far. It would help to provide a stark contrast against the events that are about to unfold. Soon after, several images and developments are presented to you in swift succession, taking you from one bizarre and jarring situation to another. 

 As the viewer is left figuring out whether Jess has been transferred to a parallel reality, or is simply having a nightmare, trapped inside a powerful hallucination, perhaps induced by the capabilities of whatever being lay inside the case, or whether it's neither, but a whole new dimension to which she has been transported, the narrative concludes, deliberately leaving you with more questions than answers. The film comes across as a dedicated endeavor, but would have benefited from a little from more control on its lights and shadows. There is presence, however, of an interesting approach which keeps the viewer curious about the direction of the story until its very conclusion.

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