A young couple’s first night in their new Los Angeles apartment turns into a nightmare following the arrival of some unwanted visitors in Brian Feeney’s short thriller Night Terror.
There are film critics and snobs that look down upon the horror genre, believing it to be tasteless and cheap, whilst they much prefer films that are dramatic and theatrical. What they fail to realise though, is that horror films are difficult to make. How do you make an audience feel on edge and scared, especially when they have “seen it all” thanks to decades of cinematic macabre being readily available? Even more difficult is to create a scary horror in short form, and the writer/director has attempted to do so in just six minutes with his latest short film Night Terror.
Whilst being shown around a swanky and clean L.A. apartment by Beatrice (Judy Clement), a young couple comprising of Jess (Alice Borcean) and Tom (Jaz Martin), notice they are being filmed by another man in a neighbouring building. This strange sight doesn’t put them off though, and they decide to stay. During the night, Jess awakens and is in need of the toilet. Once she is back in the bedroom, she spots the earlier voyeur, along with another young man, in the garden below. She wakes her partner and he goes to search the building, only he is captured and has tubes stuffed in his mouth. Jess then has to build up the courage to save Tom and escape the apartment before things go really bad for them both.
That is about the whole plot of Night Terror, it’s short, it’s punchy, and it’s okay. Brian Feeney actually shows a lot of potential, but with taking up most of the crew jobs, he may have been spread a little thin. As well as directing and writing Night Terror, Feeney also acted as the cinematographer, editor, producer, and post-production sound mixer. Of course, budget constraints would have played a massive part in crewing up, but one can only imagine how much of a difference it would have made if Feeney could have been allowed to focus on just his directing.
It has to be said though, that some of the camera work is well done, as is the editing to go along with it. The shots he chooses are never boring, and the movement of the camera is professional, especially when compared to some low-to-no budget shorts that land on our desks; many of those prefer to just put a camera on a tripod and press record. Feeney’s shots are fluid and move along with the characters. Whilst the camera movements are great, unfortunately, the lighting isn’t really designed for a horror/thriller and is flat for the majority, but again, they may not have had a decent selection of lights at their disposal.
Near the beginning of the short, Beatrice asks Tom where he is originally from. In the broadest Yorkshire accent, Tom states he is from London. Beatrice then replies that she has known people from London and his accent doesn’t match theirs, but he then tells her his accent is more working-class London. The issue I had here is, it was never brought up again, and him stating that he is from London (when he clearly isn’t) has no bearing on the plot whatsoever. Why couldn’t Tom have just said he was from Yorkshire when asked?
We do have to give props to Ryan Adison Amen for the music of Night Terror. He does add a creepiness to the score, and the end credits music is ramped up with synths that are reminiscent of that of 80s and 90s horror.
Night Terror has some great ideas that are unfortunately held back by its budget (that is often the case here) but it has some great ideas and a director who can go on to great things.
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