Review #21: Witch's Spring (2004) - Short film

Witch's Spring is an independent five-minute short film from the United Kingdom. Despite being rather short, only having two actors, and recorded in just 24 hours, I found this rather memorable.

Source: IMDb

Length: 5 minutes

Number of Ratings from IMDb: 22

Country of Origin: United Kingdom

Director: Brian Barnes [Witch's Spring, LovecraCked! The Movie, The Urge]

A man's inner monologue ponders why people find internet dating to be so risky. He reveals that he's been in contact with a girl for some time, and she wants to meet. Believing that no man's "ever died of a broken heart," he agrees to see her.

The girl, Rhiannon, seems rather nice, though something is off about her. When they get to her house (going down streets that the guy, despite living his whole life in London, has never seen before), she admits that she's a Pagan. This doesn't bother him much, probably due to the fact that Rhiannon is simply stunning.

Well, perhaps not so much when she's holding a knife.

He seems interested in Paganism, and both of them make playful quibs back and forth to each other, though he seems to be slowing becoming more worrisome of the situation.

After a little time, she offers him some of her "Witch's brew", to which he jokingly asks if it's a love potion. She acknowledges it sort of is, as he takes a sip and instantly his vision goes blurry. When he wakes up, he may realize that perhaps internet dating is not as harmless as he formerly believed.

Witch's Spring was written, shot, and edited in 24 hours, for the 24 Hour Film Challenge 2004, which from what I can tell, was a short film challenge in the United Kingdom. It was shown in various festivals, including Cardiff Screen Festival, Brighton Film Festival, Cannes Film Festival, and The Wood Green International Festival of Shorts.

As one may be able to guess, it was quite well received, and that reason is not terribly difficult to spot. The acting is perfectly solid, and story is decent, and Gillian MacGregor (the actress who played Rhiannon) is very attractive. The only problem I had with this short is a pretty bad special effects use near the end of the short. That aside, this was very solid.

As far as horror shorts go, this was a fun watch - it took itself seriously, but not too seriously, and never got too boring (which, believe it or not, can happen in short films). Quite a good watch, and I'd recommend it.

My rating: 8.5/10

IMDb page

- Michael

Review #17: No More Souls: One Last Slice of Sensation (2004) - Fan film

This six-minute short is the first fan film I've watched. As you may be able to guess, it's a Hellraiser fan film, and relatively well-liked by those who've seen it. It's not overly difficult to see why.

Source: YouTube

Length: 6 minutes

Number of Ratings from IMDb: 79

Country of Origin: USA

Director: Gary J. Tunnicliffe [Within the Rock, No More Souls: One Last Slice of Sensation]

This film opens with a quote quite befitting of the situation.

Humanity is gone - Earth's population was decimated due to nuclear weaponry, and is now uninhabitable. Pinhead laments this fact, as now, there are no more souls to condemn to eternal suffering. In short, he is bored. Too impatient to wait millions of years for more humans to arrive, he decides to end his suffering, and open the Lament Configuration.

This movie is short and to the point. Pinhead (played by the director, Gary Tunnicliffe) has a great monologue for most of the short, showing the boredom of Pinhead and the restlessness of the Cenobites quite well.

Despite the absence of Doug Bradley, I feel that regardless, the film does a good job. The make-up is solid, due to the fact that Tunnicliffe was responsible for the make-up in many well-known horror films, among them the third, fourth, sixth, seventh, and eighth Hellraiser films. Of course, he also worked on the make-up in Hellraiser: Revelations, so perhaps he shouldn't get all the credit.

No More Souls: One Last Slice of Sensation is short, sweet, and to the point. Apparently, this is an Easter Egg on the Hellraiser: Deader DVD, if you wish to purchase it. It can also be found online with relative ease.

My rating: 8/10

IMDb page