Shank'd

This one's pretty funny. The whole short film is like essentially a bait-and-switch, where the beginning at first make it seem as if we're in for a slasher horror movie, but surprise, surprise it turns out to be something rather comedic.

Absolutely LOVED this one, such a build up to a great pay off

This movie was hilarious! Loved the 'shanked' twist and it got even funnier when the 'plowed' twist was revealed! The third twist was great, as it added a great contrast and the premise of the jury show in real life would be really boring, which is why it worked so well in contrast to the other shows. Also loved the graphics, very well done!

Easily got the most laughs of the night in heat 2. Really entertaining twists throughout.

Top notch satire. Why did all the shows have the same graphics design for their title cards?

That plowd intro was the funniest part of the night! Great job.

Strong film, the comedic timing and pacing of this film really set it apart from the others of the evening. Elephant in the room is the last part of the film, while good on paper, audio issues and an unconvincing performance (perhaps due to the audio) stopped this film from being at the very top of the pile. May see the film at the finals.

In the vein of Punk'd and other prank shows this short asks what happens when these worlds collide. Great set-up for the first show but the coming of the second was rather predicable and the third even more so, therefore the overall joke was somewhat diminished. The audience loved it though with some of the largest reactions of the night. Light on story but huge on fun and entertainment.

Awesome set up for an absolutely hilarious payoff. Bloody loved it team Cactus.

Loved loved looooved this, truly brilliant concept. Fell a little flat at the end, one more gag of somebody getting hurt would have probably been better than the outcome, but still very enjoyable overall, fantastic job guys.

So funny and well thought out. Enjoyed the first and second shows but the third was not a great way to end. Would have been my favourite of the night if it ended with another equally funny show as the first two were. Such a great idea and definitely my second favourite of the heat.

A very strong first gag with Shank'd, and stronger still with Plough'd, but after the second punchline the film quickly faded into repetition. I think you could have actually ended with the great eyebrow raise to camera at Serv'd, which was strangely my favourite part of your film and gave me a good chuckle.

Totally Brilliant. Absolutely hilarious. Not exactly a short film, much more a web video or sketch you might see on Facebook. These are the kinds of films I hoped we might see when the max runtime was reduced to 5minutes.

Enjoyed this film! Lot's of laughs from the audience. Hilarious!!

Absolutely hilarious, really effective comedy, which while a little predictable and lacks a satisfying conclusion, was still a very good time. If you're asking yourselves why you didn't graduate beyond the shortlist, it's simply because the top 15 were so good and so top notch- I could absolutely see a film like "Shank'd" making the city finals in previous years, and I'm sure team Cactus? will crack it in the future. If you are looking for ways to beat the competition though, I'd say it all really just came down to camerawork. The cinematography in this film is serviceable, but if those opening shots before the reveal had been more slick, we would have had a pretty powerful piece. A lot of the shows you based "Shank'd" and "Plow'd" off have some pretty wacky and trippy camera angles as well, and so to fully achieve the maximum effect, it would have been cool to really drill home this style, and to have it be distinctly separate from the "real world" scenes. I think as well, your storytelling could be a great area to work on, while I definitely don't want you to change up your sense of humour, a funny-but-repetitive formula, or a parody TV show, or a film which is probably 50% just opening sequences (hilarious ones), probably wouldn't cut it above some more traditionally told short films with powerful or engrossing stories- and this is probably more a testament to the difference between a short film and a comedy sketch, the latter of which "Shank'd" more fits into. All of these rules can be made to be broken, and I absolutely encourage spitting in the face of the formula (see Strang Entertainment's 2012 entry "True" or their 2017 entry "Pandora's Night" to see this at premium capacity), but you still have to produce something that is ultimately a very satisfying watch if you want to find yourself a spot in the finals and beyond. Even if you do stick with something like a "Punk'd" prank show, a great way to up the stakes would have been to take it beyond "Jury'd". Maybe an overseas country bombs New Zealand "NUKE'D" or God turns up and destroys the whole world "APOCALYPSE'D". Just a thought, haha. I hope this review doesn't seem harsh- as I said at the beginning I loved "Shank'd" on it's own terms and you should all be stoked with your effort. As for your title, "Shank'd" is obviously the only thing you could have called this film :)