Itch

Starting with a panicked character running to a lift to escape an unseen force, the team paid homage to films such as THE RING where a minor character gets killed to kick things off, with the excitement being the unfolding of layers as the story proper gets told.

From here further homages were baked in such as to HELLRAISER with a captivating object bringing on the horror and utilising the 'all that glitters is not gold' trop to decent effect.

The slow-burn approach was appreciated for the most part, with framing evocative of j-horror legend Kiyoshi Kurosawa (KAIRO, CURE et all) and a sense of dread. However for me it was a bit too slow because the edit needed to be streamlined. There were lots of really good creepy shots but some of them really felt like they could have hit the cutting room floor as did little to advance the plot.

Your lead actress's performance was strong, and sound was good for the most part although had some ups and downs in quality. The biggest work on from me other than the edit would be the lighting, which I felt to be a bit too dark for a decent amount of the film. Shadows are great to utilise but seeing details like facial expressions allows characters to generate depth, whereas by going too dark it felt like characters were actually obscured at times which took me out of the moment.

Story: 2/5
Technical: 2/5
Elements: 2.5/5
Overall: 2/5