Legion

Big stand out of the school teams for me.
Everything looks better in black and white. Not to say there wasn't good cinematography... but even ordinary shots are elevated by greyscale.
Loved the low-framerate/stop motion choice -- very inspired.
My biggest criticism is the location. Dialogue tells us that it's an abandoned house. But it has a working porch light? I'm not saying you need to shoot in a house full of broken glass and rotten floorboards. I'm saying the story could've easily fit in a forest, warehouse, farm building...
Ask around! you'd be surprised what people you know have access to.

Oh. This was splatter...genuinely expected possession when I came to write my review here as I don't write genre down when watching the films in the heats. Don't take that necessarily as a bad thing, mind, because mixing genres up is totally cool! This was absolutely one of the standouts from the Christchurch school entries at least from a technical point of view.

I liked the use of black and white because your framing and lighting was absolutely on point, with inky blacks and a keen eye for detail taking the viewer on an intriguing visual path across your 5 films.

The Home Improvement style over the fence neighbour provided great comic relief compared to the spooky abandoned house and oneiric mis en scene as this low budget take on NIGHT OF THE DEMONS unfolded.

Minor gripe is I thought the splatter element could have been leaned on harder for impact but that's just me.

What I liked:
Seeing Jemimah back after their Best School Team win in 2022. These filmmakers have such a clear vision and style and it stands out in amongst the other school teams.

What I didn't like:
While tonally this film is so rich, I don't know how well the story was communicated - I wasn't really sure why anything was happening, but luckily the atmosphere was so well directed, I didn't really care.

Something else I liked:
Love seeing Mike as a problematic nosey neighbour. Very much his role in my life too.