It’s short, it’s sweet and it’s got poetry!

I was contacted by Mr John Shelton via his Twitter page and sent 2 pieces of his work which are both available for people to view on his YouTube page, the first of which was entitled  Avant-Macabre . and the second, I will be getting around to watching as soon as I possibly can after the enjoyment I got from this.
Straight away, the title had me interested, let’s be honest, original horror (as I’m hoping the title means) should get the attention of a few people.
The short film is only 6 minutes long and we see Mr Shelton introducing us to the piece before it starts, which I personally like as we don’t always see the face of the genius behind such things and (in my eyes) it makes a viewer feel more welcomed. There are voice overs from Emma Dark, Andrea Dean Van Scoyok and Dean Sills, which Mr Shelton continues to explain that he hopes we enjoy this silent ish horror film 

As you would expect, I really don’t want to give any spoilers away as I’m writing and would prefer for any readers interested to go ahead and watch these things for themselves. As a reviewer, these pieces of written work are my own feelings on what I watch or read, but at the same time will possibly help to guide people in a choice of weather or not they decide to indulge themselves in the media I am reviewing.

Immediately on start we are introduced to an amazingly chilling female voice-over provided by Emma Dark, which sent chills down my spine, reading poetry over the top of a silent movie whilst we are introduced to a dark figure placing a lit candle at the side of a row of sharp knives, casting his hand over them and selecting his ‘weapon of choice’. From this point on we follow the short story.

Now, I personally love the entire feel of this work, the idea of a silent film with haunting poetry voiced over works for me. It looks as if it’s been filmed with a camcorder on a very minimal budget, but that’s fine as you don’t always need fancy sets and lots of special effects to mess with your mind, just a planted seed and your mind will screw you over at the best of times. The film has been edited to be shown in a sepia tone with the grainy effects over the top, which seemed to remind me of Nosferatu by  F. W. Murnau. I have no idea why, just my minds eye seemed to work that way when watching.

I am hoping that this short leads on to a longer piece, but at the same time worry that if it does, we will loose the essence of what I have just seen. It’s all too easy to ruin a good piece of work (Hollywood have done it for years)

For me, this is what Indie Film is all about, you don’t need to spend millions to make a good film and also doesn’t have to be the obligatory 90 minutes long, I have just watched a fantastic piece of work that works on a host of levels. This is one that I urge people to give the time of day to and has left me wanting to see more of Mr Shelton’s work
Ghost Writer©