I must admit I'm a picky bastard when it comes to short films; most feel like incredibly short, or agonzingly long, episodes of The Twilight Zone or Outer Limits. While that's certainly nothing to be ashamed of, I personally love those shows, it can get rather tiresome when you've been reviewing cinema as long as I have. Trust me folks, I've come across some amazing short films, the works of C.A. Broadstone and those contained on Small Gauge Trauma come to mind, but the majority are either way too pretentious and abstract or excruciatingly low-brow and painful on the eyes and ears. As with all cinema though, you get your good, bad and ugly. When asked to check out David Pike's Red Door, I was a bit apprehensive, would I be forced to endure a grueling 35-minute smorsgasbord of bad writing, horrid acting, cheap camcorder visuals and an ass-clenchingly bad emo-folk rock score?
Thankfully...no. On the contrary, Pike's short was skillfully shot, all of the actors (for the most part) offered up admirable performances and the score wasn't too intrusive or inappropriate. I found the concept to be relatively interesting and the visuals nightmarish enough but I did have one small problem, what the hell was it all about? Without thinking me a complete blathering idiot, I did indeed "get it," the murder, the fire, the contract, the door...all of it. Well almost all of it, what's up with the nuclear war? I won't give away much because it's ultimately going to be up to viewers to decide what they're seeing and what Todd's true sins are but it all felt so pointless to me.
Despite everything I've mentioned though Red Door is far from being a bad film. No question David Pike's got skills, he seems to have a real unique style all his own and I look forward to a feature-length effort from him. If you're looking for something visually impressive and original and you're a fan of short films, I'd recommend this.
