Having recently moved into a new apartment, a woman begins to witness strange occurrences when an electronic drunk kit, which came with the living space, starts to play by itself. This is the short film Drums.
It’s interesting to witness the start of a filmmaker’s career. You get to see how they have gone from first picking up a camera and creating something, then their journey along as they become more efficient at storytelling for the small and big screen. Everybody starts somewhere and the only way to get better at something is by practicing. You only need to look at the likes of My Best Friends Birthday, then compare that to Pulp Fiction to see how far along Tarantino got, or even the early films of Brian De Palma when he worked alongside a young and new actor named Robert De Niro.
Here, with the short film Drums, we have a new director named Miroslav Petkov, a Bulgarian looking to hone his craft whilst creating interesting pieces. Drums is a short mystery/horror that comes in at just over five minutes in length. Casey (Simona Rose) has just moved into a new apartment. After arguing on the phone, she begins to settle in for the night, until she hears the distinct sound of a drum. You see, the apartment also came with an electronic drum kit. Worried, she makes a phone call for help (presumably the apartment block superintendent), but half asleep, he states he will look in the morning.
Casey then calls her friend who got her the apartment. The friend is surprised that the drum kit is still there, as it should have been taken away and disposed of. She then tells Casey an eerie story about the previous tenant, who was a drummer.
Whilst the idea for drums is pretty decent (I think it would have been scarier if it was, say, a piano though) the execution needs more work. Yes, you can tell this is a first-time film (which deserves applause) and that it was made with little budget, but some of the issues could have been fixed with more time and attention, rather than money. Sometimes the sound is a little distorted when the characters talk, the framing is a little off, and the lighting isn’t great. Little fixes could have helped the production value by big strides.
I did enjoy the performance of Simona Rose; it looked like she had a lot of fun making the short film, which is important. Whilst, for a horror film, Drums isn’t scary, it does show potential, especially for Miroslav Petkov. It’s obvious he has many ideas and it will be interesting to follow his journey, making improvements with each film.
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