Gift-Wrapped

Beautifully shot, cute concept, an enjoyable watch.

Taken from bed, gagged, and mummified by two masked assailants, our lead struggles desperately to escape. Given the sinister approach those with masks take, it is easy to understand our lead's efforts (great performance by that guy). Tough genre, nice payoff. I liked how you at least tried to build a profile for the guy we followed on screen for most of the film, with the joke about the staplers a particular highlight.

I just watched in the screening room and really enjoyed it. Brilliant ending :)

A good effort though ending was a bit obvious (probably should have cut the "It's time to join the party" line as that's what really gave it away). Also was a little weird that the guy wasn't asking more questions (and it looked like he could stand up at any time). The helium was a nice idea (and connected well to the party theme). The other balloon joke was very funny (would have been funnier if it had actually worked and knocked the knife down). Overall a solid effort that maybe could have played the comedy up a little more to help make the whole situation seem more bizarre. My advice for future is not to get too caught up in your idea and story once you've got it worked out, put it to one side and just play the reality of the situation for the characters, and that will help to hide the ending from the audience (also look to trim dialogue wherever you can - for example "Where's Sammy?" is probably more effective than "Fred, Where's Sammy? Didn't he bring you up?").

Brains? is my favourite 48Hours short film, so I think this one suffered slightly from the expectations I'd built in my head. Tough genre, but a pretty good handling of it. As others have said, the twist is a little obvious due to the "come and join the party" line, making the final part of the film lose some impact. In general, the middle stretch of the film was very good, while the beginning and end didn't quite work for me. Good film.

Very slick. Tidy edit. Tidy cinematography. Good acting. Loved the voice distortion (was it post or was it helium balloons?). Loved the use of a couple of movie cliches to acquirethe knife. One didn't work which left you hoping that the next one would. The twist was predictable once you have seen most of the film. It was nice how it tied into the card. Could have done with a better soundtrack to add atmosphere (i.e. music) and some contrast between shots (possibly some sort of effect?). The ending was a very common ending but it was still quite funny and also well acted and shocking. I enjoyed watching this!

Enjoyable watch but a tad predicable in terms of the outcome. It was always going to be tough following up the brilliance of last years' entry. Was that a script I saw under the brick in the copper ring?

Brains? is my favourite 48Hours short film, so I think this one suffered slightly from the expectations I'd built in my head. Tough genre, but a pretty good handling of it. As others have said, the twist is a little obvious due to the "come and join the party" line, making the final part of the film lose some impact. In general, the middle stretch of the film was very good, while the beginning and end didn't quite work for me. Good film.