Alone & Alone
Review by Paul Preston
Welcome to Today I Watched…, a series of posts documenting my new challenge – watch a movie a day for the rest of my life. Keep coming back to TheMovieGuys.net to find out what I watch each day…and get my take on it.
When I see a movie that’s a new release in theaters or on demand, I’ll give it a proper review in the “Reviews” or “Home Viewing”, otherwise, I’ll write about it here.
May 22, 2017 – Alone
Alone is labeled as a “Horror Short Film” on YouTube, but it wouldn’t take you long to realize that as the film goes through nearly every person-home-along cliché any horror movie could possibly dole out – mysterious phone call, shadowy stranger, unexplained sounds coming from the other room, killer with a mask, the lights go out, all with a dubious actor at the center. This short was made by someone who’s never seen a movie before, so if you want the real experience of how to deal with clichés like this, check out Night of the Slasher, which I wrote about HERE.
May 23, 2017 – King Arthur: Legend of the Sword – catch the review of Guy Ritchie’s macho bullshit take on the Arthurian legend in the REVIEWS category of TheMovieGuys.net.
May 24, 2017 – Alone
I did that thing where I took YouTube up on their suggestion of what it is I should next watch. And because three days ago I watched a movie called Alone, YouTube thought I might like another movie called Alone. Not so much. This Alone is described not as a “Horror Short Film”, but a “Post-Apocalyptic Short Film”, and not only that, but this is one of TEN “Post-Apocalyptic Short Films” and one of FIFTY-THREE Short Films called Alone on the first five pages of YouTube’s search results (where they didn’t necessarily stop – I did), and I may just go through and watch them all.
This one is also described as “Award-winning” for its cinematography and sound design. Those tech elements are in fine order but the overall dramatic pull is merely OK. It has a student film feel with a wooden voice over delivery. The elements aren’t the lived-in look and feel of the last man left on Earth after something ravaged all humans but him, but instead they had the look of “my parents are out so the house will look empty for the short”. On to the next one ‘cause there are a lot of Alones to get to…
