Say cheese?
Main Cast: Chris Smith, Chris Roberts
Director: Ryan Kjolberg
Well, that was interesting, if brief.
Clarence (Chris Smith) comes home one night, tries to relax on the couch, but the moment is interrupted when his printer beeps and spits out a photo of Clarence in his living room, taken from above. He’s studying the photo when a flashbulb goes off overhead. Clarence creeps up the stairs to a loft space and, just as he’s about to open a creaky door that leads to a dark room, the printer beeps again. Clarence goes back down to find another photo of himself emerging from the printer, this one taken in a moment of shock.
Just then, the lights in his apartment go out and he sees, silhouetted in the window, a figure of a man with a camera for a head (Chris Roberts).
Like I said, interesting. But brief.
Written and directed by Ryan Kjolberg (with Michael Muchnij co-writing), SHUTTER is a 2015 short I found on the Alter YouTube channel, another one that begs for a longer treatment, but the director’s next film, a full-length feature this time, didn’t come out until 2021, an anthology movie where Kjolberg’s contribution was not a longer version of this short. And that’s unfortunate; there’s just enough tension and suspense built up here, I’d love to see what he does with more room to breathe and develop a plot because I bet the story behind this one would be very interesting to see on a bigger screen.
It just seems a shame to have such a large crew (SHUTTER had a composer, a cinematographer, an editor, a production designer, an assistant director, a sound editor, a special effects person, a five-man camera crew, and a script supervisor, none of which were Ryan Kjolberg, which is how it usually goes on a short like this) and be done in only four minutes. I want the longer version.
There’s no dialogue, so Chris Smith has to convey everything with his face, and I’d say he does a pretty good job; I was right there with Clarence as he contemplated opening that door.
I wish there was more to say for this one, I really enjoyed it. Unfortunately, it’s just so short and we’re given so little, all I can do is praise what’s on the screen, which I have done even to the point of spoiling the entire “plot”. SHUTTER isn’t the second coming of CITIZEN KANE, but it is a very effective short horror film, and sometimes that’s good enough. You can watch it on YouTube.
C. Dennis Moore is the author of over 60 published short stories and novellas in the speculative fiction genre. Most recent appearances are in the Dark Highlands 2, What Fears Become, Dead Bait 3 and Dark Highways anthologies. His novels are Revelations, and the Angel Hill stories, The Man in the Window, The Third Floor, and The Flip.
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