Spearhead

I absolutely loved this film, the characters were absolutely captivating, I wanted each of them to have their own film dedicated to their stories. Beautifully laconic and well crafted lines which tell us a great deal without saying much. The shooting was excellent, creative without being gratuitous, just how we like it. Sound was top notch and the score shone in the second half, with genius elements throughout. Well done Accounting Bears.

I agree with Eyeball in terms of the production values and characters, but I don't think this had a coherent story, nor was it much of a horror. Sure it was a disturbing change in tone, but the change made no sense, why is one of her dates in on this? And who is she? The central character isn't developed at all in stark contrast to all of her dates. There is no tension, a little bit of foreshadowing (beyond your audience knowing this is supposed to be a horror) might have helped a lot, a question to the guys about recent disappearances and how it makes them feel or something. I would have loved to rate this higher based on the characters but the failing of hitting the genre and major tonal shift were pretty unsatisfying.

The "speed-date" set-up has been used quite a bit in 48HR films over the years so I was rollign my eyes early on. It certainly didn't help either that I really didn't find any of the characters that interesting as they sort of painfully executed their cliched dialogue at the bar. I thought that the edit here was a bit unsure of itself with the POV of the woman sometimes changed up for an over the shoulder with no good reason. Likewise, the "Mr Robot" style of composition for the woman didn't really add anything when the rest of the style was more traditional. The best shot was the garage door opening even if it did go on a touch long. As vfs has already said, the horror elements are largely missing and so there was little in the way of tension to engage me.

Sound design was pretty good and so was the cinematography even though I thought the shots of the date weren't framed very well. I guess my only complaint with the story is that is doesn't put enough focus in the right areas. The boyfriend character sort of comes out of no where in the end and it makes the murders, which were inevitable after she asked them to go back with her; all a bit pointless. It sort of lacked the horror element but I guess that happens with a lot of 48 hours films.

Solid acting, ranging from OK to great, and the overall production was very nice. The camera absorbs the locations without ever trying to be flashy. I appreciate that. What I think lets this down though is the script and especially the horror aspect. The twist seems completely random because we spend so much time on the victims and little time on the perpetrators, stopping us from getting a decent hint that they would commit the acts they do. Foreshadowing is a valuable skill that isn't easy to pull off - especially in 48 hours and when you don't want to give the game away - but if you can crack that nut, you'll be finalist contenders.

Great Film, great acting, great plot. 48 hours needs to lighten up on the genre restrictions and give the teams more creativity to run with the genre they have been given.

I enjoyed this film a lot. For me, it was the best of it's heat. The elegant pacing of the film is complemented by witty and concise dialogue with very well delivered lines. The rack focus in this film was one of my favourites from this years competition. My favourite shot however, was the opening of the garage door. I'm a sucker for good sound design and the low droning rumble as the door was raised set the tone perfectly for the thematic switch up from romantic comedy to horror. I was surprised this film didn't make the finals as it displayed high production values, great script, and an intriguing cast of varying personalities. It seems many of the films that attempted to subvert their genre were not well received by the judges. Judges decision aside, the filmmakers and crew should be very proud of this beautifully shot and well constructed film.

My apologies for the late review but the calling out of judges not appreciating subversion by a bunch of 7 star reviews for this film did not go unnoticed. Over half the film was spent on speed dating where attempts at insightful comical humour were made however to me the self depreciation of the average kiwi male did feel rather cliched. I'm a huge fan of Takashi Miike's fan AUDITION (in other words I'm a huge fan of slow burning horror) and so whilst dating has been massively overdone in 48 I still did like the ability to hold the frame during the dates. Building to a cold drab murderous mean spirited factory/warehouse conclusion was not unexpected unfortunately. There was a fine musical score in the 2nd half of the film however the plot development in terms of any story was for me a massive problem. Acting fine, technically fine in particular camerawork. Shit even editing was fine but at the end of the day there was a story that to me personally was simply not engaging.