Film title: Scratched Cast & Crew: Ash - Skylar Okie Carrie - Chaiah Durst Written, Directed, Shot & Edited - Kai Lucchini Scratched, a short horror film directed by Kai Lucchini is about a young man trying to contact his girlfriend while a strange presence subtly roams the place. The film adjures the feelings of creepiness by exhibiting rough scratches on the faces of pictures. During the first segment of the film, we are introduced to our two characters, Ash and Carrie. They are engaged in a normal conversation over their cell phones and appear to be in a relationship. I got the feeling of dishonesty coming from Carrie between their convo for the reason that she appears to be in a bedroom but says "They are keeping me late." Sounds fishy to me, unless she's babysitting. After their convo, we are taken to the kitchen by Ash where we see a picture of a small girl on the fridge with a pizza restaurant name printed on the bottom of the picture. This is where the creepiness starts to kick in when Ash starts to hum the tune of the restaurant and the TV coincidentally plays the advertisement of the tune. Then we see the slogan of the restaurant on the advertisement saying "Don't Think Twice, Just Have Another Slice," which I feel was a great foreshadowing in the film. After this little coincidence, Ash disregards it but after closing the fridge, he notices extreme scratches on the face of the little girl's picture. However, he does not think much of it and continues with his business but is stopped after noticing another picture of him and Carrie on the table with the same intense scratches on Carrie's face. Now if I was Ash, this is usually the part I would become skeptical about the coincidences and signs happening. Aside from that, Ash did the complete opposite and just stayed calm; disregarding what just happened again. We are then taken to the next segment of the film when Ash goes to his bedroom and tries calling Carrie's cell phone. During this attempt, we are shown a point of view from the entity or being slowly approaching the bedroom from the kitchen. As it approaches, the pictures hung on the wall including the one on the table start to fall down without contact. The last picture that falls down in the hallway has the intense scratches on the faces of Ash and Carrie this time; and at that moment, Ash's call goes to her voicemail. This typically is a sign of a bad omen but our care-free main character wouldn't know, so he leaves a message, puts on his earpiece and listens to a song. In the last couple of seconds of the film, we are shown a very bizarre and creepy picture hanging on the wall just behind Ash on his bed. I cannot really explain this picture, but I can tell you there is blood and the same scratches; just even bigger and with color. Overall, I enjoyed the 3-minute film and I look forward to more from Kai Lucchini. He mentioned it was the first short film he has made and I am very impressed by the amount of time and thought put in for the film. If you would like to see the behind the scenes of the film, click here; Kai talks briefly about his inspirations for the film, the budget, the gear, the music & SFX, and the visual effects. My only concern about the film was the aspect ratio because that particular aspect ratio makes our main characters feel claustrophobic and depicts a period piece when combined with the black and white grade. Nonetheless, I would recommend watching this 3-minute short film and looking forward to the next one as I feel it would just get better. |
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