Director/ writer: Miroslav Petkov
Running Time: 5:24 minutes
IMDb gave this an 8.2 rating.
Storyline: Casey moves to her new apartment, where some drums are left behind.
We start the story with Casey entering her new flat, she is on the phone asking the landlord why her new place still has items left behind by the previous owner. Here is where the story takes a darker turn, and the tone also becomes more desperate.
The most significant item that has been abandoned is the electric drum set in one of the bedrooms.
Casey carries on with her evening, when suddenly she hears a sound that has her up and about looking for the source of the noise. She checks through the house and finds nothing but the drum set. Seething, she calls the landlord back to enquire about the drum set being left behind, she wants it out of her new flat. The drums keep sounding, and it is really starting to scare Casey.
Casey, in desperation calls Ashley, the woman who sold her the flat, and that is when things start to ramp up. The tension has grown exponentially as we wonder what the heck Casey is going to do about the drums. By this stage, I would have been throwing them out the window. Ashley infers that something is terribly wrong with the drums, and they should have been already removed from the property. Then Ashley delivers some devastating information about the previous owner, that something terrible happened in the flat before Casey moved in, which explains the cheap purchase of the flat. What happens next to Casey is sure to make you terrified of drums.
I like the storyline in this, it is simple and easy to grasp what is going on. I think this is the first time I have seen drums feature as the antagonist character in a film. There is great characterisation with Casey and what she is going through. The viewer has sympathy for Casey, and so we don't want anything bad to happen to her.
The cinematography is well done, I like the closeup POV of Casey as she freaks out at the end. You can really feel her terror, as she tries to make sense of what is happening.
The plot was fulfilled and resolved in a monstrous way, and all the tension is released as we get to the end of the film. We see what happens to Casey, why it happens, and how it all turns out is sure to please the viewer. There is no gore, and there doesn't need to be, the story carries on quite well without it.
I enjoyed the ending, totally satisfied with it. It brings a full wrap around that takes a morbid turn. Although there is some foreshadowing, this doesn't take away the flow of the story and adds something for the viewer to look forward to. The very last image is frightening to say the least.
Great short horror film. I really enjoyed this. I would recommend this to anyone interested in short indie horror films. It had me gripped from start to finish, as I really wanted to see how this all played out. Although this is only a short horror, so much happens in 5-minutes.
Independent horror films are paving the way as we watch Hollywood fall apart. It is little gems like this that give me hope for the horrorsphere, that we no longer have to rely on big budget films to deliver us entertainment, when there are so many amazing independent filmmakers out their like Miroslav Petkov.
Thank you for the opportunity to review this short horror film, DRUMS (2024)
Reviewed by Del Gibson 😊
