Five Minutes

When I first sat to watch this short film, I did so on my laptop, ignoring the comment that it was best to watch on a tablet and with headphones. Within about a minute of the film I not only learnt that this was true, but also that this is not so much a short film in the traditional sense but rather an interactive film/game which requires the viewer to get involved to get to the end. In particular you are required to trace lines or click and hold in moving boxes to help the character focus or complete actions in order to stay alive, which is kinda hard to do with a mouse pad or keyboard shortcuts.

Moving to the tablet, the film does work better as it is much more responsive – even on a slower internet connection it was pretty fluid. Of course it is a bit gimmicky, but as long as you get it right then it works as a device. My advice is to play (watch?) on medium or easy setting, if only because it is best when the film doesn't reset like a game level. In terms of it as a film, it does have drama and urgency, and the skill tests add to that quite well. I'm not entirely sure that the scenario works, since the 5-minute countdown is only one of the dangers, even though it plays like everything will be okay once this initial time is achieved. Technically the film moves well and the use of headphones does allow the music and sound to produce urgency and horror, which works well. Performances are okay and generally it is a decent zombie movie which is not quite as good as "non-game" short films in the same genre, but manages to have the touch-screen thing to help cover up for this, while also having the downside of feeling a bit gimmicky.

This gimmicky feeling isn't really helped by the film also having very direct product placement from a certain type of watch but it is perhaps forgivable as the narrative has clear reason for frequent shots of the watches counting down. Still, pretty fun for one time, and well made with impacting sound, music, and pace.