Familiar (2012)
Fatal Pictures – 23 Minutes
Dir. Richard Powell – Prod. Zach Green
As someone who watches a lot of horror , it is getting more difficult for films to hook me , shock me , surprise me and entertain me. Familiar does all that and in just 23 minutes.
John Dodd is a man coming into middle age and not dealing with it very well. He in fact hates his current life and blames his misery on his seemingly normal home life with his loving wife and teenage daughter. But in 4 weeks his daughter will leave and then John will be free to leave his wife and get on with the rest of his life unshackled from the chains of family life.
But there is just one problem , Charlotte his wife announces she is pregnant and John sees this as an attempt to trap him for the rest of his life. Now John is unraveling quickly and decides that he should destroy the unborn child but things take a twist as John carrying a monster of his own.
This is a powerful , hard to watch but hugely fulfilling film . And at 23 minutes it’s length is spot on , after it has finished it feels like you have watched a full 90 minute film , not in time but in the amount of structure and story portrayed.
John is played by Robert Nolan and he gives a wonderful performance as a man struggling with the monotony of everyday life . There is almost no conversation throughout the film as the story is told through the inner monologue of John and this works perfectly. It is so refreshing to have an idea like this that works so well through good editing and great acting.
There are times in Familiar that are moving , there are times that are very difficult to watch but this is one of those rare works that stay with you. I have been thinking about this very often since the first watch and that is very rare for a short film. A moment that really stuck with me was when John and Charlotte are in bed and she looks lovingly across at him and he thinks “Please don’t touch me you pig” , absolutely heartbreaking.
There is so much I want to talk about with Familiar but really don’t want to add too many spoilers . Just watch this and I really hope you get as much from this as I did.
Fatal Pictures are really going for it here , and its great to see. There is a huge nod to David Cronenberg and later it reminded me of the wonderful work of Frank Henenlotter , but this is a very original piece of work and makes me hope in the future that Fatal Pictures with put out a feature length film.
Finally a big shout out to cinematographer Michael Jari Davidson who got this just bang on , and the score by
This is a must see for any horror fan and Many Thanks to Zach Green for pushing it my way !
A fantastic 9/10
Richard Powell – Director & Screenplay
Zach Green – Ex Producer
Robert Nolan – John Dodd
Astrida Auza – Charlotte Dodd
Cathryn Hostick – Jordan Dodd
Please check out Fatal Pictures – https://fatalpictures.wordpress.com/
Taken from my blog – Thecorpsegrinder.wordpress.com
Tweet me @corpsegrinderuk
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