A thriller comparable to the best of the genre.
The best films about missing people – Bunny Lake is Missing, Gone Girl, Prisoners, The Vanishing (the Dutch version) – are such because of the atmospheres they conjure, which are amalgams of interminable tension and palpable desperation that strike a balance between hope and despondency, patience and agitation, and kineticism and inertia. Today’s Short of the Day, Found from director Richard Hughes and writer/producer Dave Christison for The Woolshed Company, conjures such an atmosphere, and thus I feel very, very comfortable comparing it to the best features in its field.
Ten years after his daughter was abducted, our protagonist is still feverishly searching for her, holding out against hope that she’ll be found alive. His investigation has led him to an abandoned farmhouse where he thinks, he prays, she is being held. This is where Found begins, and over the course of its 20-minute run-time, the places it takes you are truly dark, truly thrilling, and truly masterful. The pace of the story is a pounding heartbeat leading deeper into both the narrative and the psychology of the protagonist. Found is quite simply exceptional filmmaking, elegant and graceful, intelligent and emotionally harrowing, commanding and astounding. And the best part? It’s a proof of concept short for a feature whose script is already written. Someone needs to back the money truck up to Hughes and Christison’s office ASAP.
Even the phrase “highest possible recommendation” doesn’t quite capture how much I want you to watch Found. Just trust me, stop reading, and press play.
Source: Short of the Week
Related Topics: Short Films
