Скачать или смотреть CONDEMNED | Horror Cult Short Film (2023) 4K

"As an entire town tries to forget a night of mysterious murders, Rachel delves deeper into the case uncovering secrets and unknown motives. Despite her attempts, a detective tries to dissuade her off of the case."

Link to IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt27348484/

This was a short film inspired from many sources, as a director I wanted to take a different approach to the horror genre compared to what I have done previously. Condemned takes the occult and delivers it in a more cerebral fashion, the greater mystery is out there and we only get a glimpse of what is affecting many of the main character's lives. This psychological horror leaves the audience with it's own interpretation of the events and also invites rewatches to see the clues left behind. The film center around these video tapes left behind, instead of using them as a large exposition dump I chose to disperse them throughout the movie as scenes of tension. The audience is put in Rachel's shoes, experiencing it all as she does.

Visually, I chose to make Condemned an homage to the classic noir films from the early 20th century of film. Heavy shadows, rays of light, stark contrasts. I also incorporated the noir undertones thematically, particularly with the character of detective Foster. Never truly knowing which side of the fence he stands on truly until the very end. The character of Rachel is obliviously inspired of classic film noir detectives as well, a hard drinking, obsessed, and loner who works only in the night. Jessica Jones was actually an early inspiration for her character. The two main characters are both connected and obsessed with guilt and tragedy, one over the loss of a child, the other of a close friend and possible lover. I chose to make the relationship between Rachel and Richard open ended as I feel like that's how she would feel. Unsure of what to make of it, someone you thought you knew so well does something so atrocious, it leaves you in shock and questioning everything around you.

Originally, there were extra scenes intended to be in the film. One of which would have developed the relationship of Rachel and Foster more, the other explaining more events of the film and teasing the cult. These were not filmed due to an injury one of the actors accrued offset which resulted in delays, timing, and schedule conflicts. Ultimately we had to move on without them, I also moved to NYC in that time. 90% of this movie was filmed in Florida, after certain events set production back I moved directly after and filmed what I could in NYC. I do think that these scenes would have helped bridge certain characters and motivations together more, though I know this movie is already long for a short film.

Overall, I am immensely proud of this film, I am proud of all of the actors, crew, and everyone else that helped in this project. For the most part there were only three of us on set filming besides the actors and I think the end result is amazing for restrictions and limitations we had. I learned many valuable lessons from this film that I have already implemented into my next short which should be coming out sometime this fall.