Rubble

Noise and Pictures produce yet another top notch, beautiful looking drama/horror with a little comedy chucked in. Very effective and smart use of cinematography to convey what truly felt like a scary situation. Loved the dialogue and characters interaction. One of top 3 in the heat and most likely the finals again?

This is a hard film to review... The earthquake tremors were handled perfectly technically with great sound and practical/camera effects. The art department was fantastic and had fairly strong characters. Seriously felt scary during the tremors too! The style did seem a bit all over the place with it's mix of sexual comedy, serious drama and terror. The real let down was in the camera angles. It felt very repetitive with the same 5 or so camera angles seemingly being repeated over and over. It was pretty hard to get a sense of where each of the characters were in relation to each other (minus the two that actually interact towards the end). Dare I say I wasn't so sure about the comedy sections as the story is so close to home for many people after Christchurch (referencing the breast scene mainly). I understand trying to defuse a tough situation with comedy but for me it didn't quite work and felt almost inappropriate when used in this type of film after recent events. Ending wasn't too clear either (that may just be me though).

I seem to have been one of the few people in the audience who didn't care too much for this film. From a technical perspective it was impressive, great use of set design and make-up, the acting was excellent and the moments of humour and humanity were great. BUT... It wasn't a horror film. It was a drama and it felt both manipulative and by the numbers for me. The ending was too obvious, the fate of certain characters felt too much like a checklist being ticked off for "tragic disaster movie." Maybe I have a heart of coal, but it takes something less mechanical plot wise for me to be emotionally moved and again the entire time I was watching it my mind was stuck in "this isn't a horror movie" mode. I did enjoy the use of the Morgan character and how his lies were serving to keep everyone's spirits up. This was one of the moments that did feel inspired. I also felt the use of the stress ball prop was a clever twist. But so much of this just felt manipulative rather than genuinely moving and wasn't really the correct genre which also served to take me out of the film.

The initial set-up of the earthquakes did have me a little scared for the characters, but the humour used throughout the short seemed to dull down what could have been a very terrifying and close-to-home story. I liked that you tried to take a different, more subtle slant on the horror/splatter genre though. Of course, it was technically solid and looked amazing, as we are coming to expect from Noise and Pictures.

This was an awesome-looking short and genuinely quite scary (if a bit close to home). The close quarters and repeated framing emphasised the claustrophobia of the situation. This was a little undercut by the comedic moments. Not that I didn't enjoy the comedic moments, mind you. The performances were nice and I enjoyed the office relationships being played out under pressure. But, it didn't feel like horror/splatter to me. Now, if one of the co-workers turned out to be a psychopath who was going to take the opportunity for some clandestine murder...

Yo, guys, wow. The premise of this is not something I would expect myself to enjoy but I really really did. Excellent makeup and set designs. Each shot was both beautiful and alarming. I appreciated the fact that the whole film was composed of a select few shots which kept the plot bouncing along. Great use of earthquake effects! Great acting and use of compulsory elements. Lame ending.

Noise and Pictures produce yet another top notch, beautiful looking drama/horror with a little comedy chucked in. Very effective and smart use of cinematography to convey what truly felt like a scary situation. Loved the dialogue and characters interaction. One of top 3 in the heat and most likely the finals again?

This is a hard film to review... The earthquake tremors were handled perfectly technically with great sound and practical/camera effects. The art department was fantastic and had fairly strong characters. Seriously felt scary during the tremors too! The style did seem a bit all over the place with it's mix of sexual comedy, serious drama and terror. The real let down was in the camera angles. It felt very repetitive with the same 5 or so camera angles seemingly being repeated over and over. It was pretty hard to get a sense of where each of the characters were in relation to each other (minus the two that actually interact towards the end). Dare I say I wasn't so sure about the comedy sections as the story is so close to home for many people after Christchurch (referencing the breast scene mainly). I understand trying to defuse a tough situation with comedy but for me it didn't quite work and felt almost inappropriate when used in this type of film after recent events. Ending wasn't too clear either (that may just be me though).