The Blue Drum

With a runtime of just 16 minutes, this short horror film does a good job. In fact, it could easily be turned into a full-length scary movie, or you could see these 16 minutes as a clip from a pretty decent horror film. Short films, even in the horror genre, aren't usually this scary because building suspense takes time. However, this one manages to create that feeling.

The story follows a young woman who has recently lost her father. She is mourning and feels a deep sense of loss. At her beloved father's funeral, not all the relatives are kind or speak highly of him. Our main character loved her father deeply because he raised her alone. It's revealed that her mother left when she was just a small child, so she never got to know her.

Soon, strange noises start catching the young woman's attention. While trying to find where the noises are coming from, she discovers a stash of hidden family items. This discovery, along with the increasingly louder noises, leads her to uncover something even bigger-something no one would have expected. This is the part where I wished the film had explored more of the backstory and the consequences of her discovery.

All in all, there are many worse and more meaningless ways to spend 16 minutes. For that reason, I consider The Blue Drum an excellent short film in its category.

Can't hear anything, have to turn the sound WAY up, and when you do, everything sounds muffled. Sounds like they used a potato for a microphone. Couldn't get through more than 5 minutes of this 11 minute short because I was annoyed that I couldn't hear/understand most of what was being said... Also, I am not elderly, so personal hearing is not the issue here.

The acting seemed decent in the first few minutes I saw, but the sound effects would sound far away for something that happened supposedly near where people were interacting/talking, resulting in mis-matched sound-levels in the film as well.

At her father's wake, Leticia clashes with her Aunt Norma, who criticises her father, claiming him to have been a poor excuse for a brother and husband. Leticia feels a void for the mother she never knew, and searches the house for answers.

I wish I'd checked the running time before I started watching it, by the time I'd gotten into it, and started enjoying it, the end credits were rolling, so just be mindful that this is 16 minutes long, and definitely not a ninety minute movie.

For a short, it's very effective, a good story, good development, and an interesting and surprising conclusion.

My advice is to ignore the negative reviews, this short is worth your time, enjoy it over a coffee. There's nothing here to thrill or shock, but it's a decent watch.

Crystal Hernandez doe as fine job as Leticia.

6.5/10.

If this was a full length movie I would watch it. The story and characters were good and it was shaping up to be a solid horror thriller.

I think this movie short was great but it would be nice to have a little more backstory.

Still as a short film it worked and the ending was a real kicker. It just didn't have the time to really ramp up the chills.

Despite not being a longer film. The acting and story were great and I did like the way it all unfolded and then wrapped up at the end.

I do hope the creator goes back and does a longer and more in depth version as I think it would be a horror mystery worth watching.

I started watching this on my nice Samsung TV that sounds great no matter what I stream on it. Unfortunately the dialogue was muffled, and if I turned up the volume enough to actually hear what they were saying, then the other sounds were way too loud. Did they have pillows over the mics??

To give this the benefit of the doubt, halfway through I switched to the Netflix app on my iPhone + my fancy earbuds. This was no better. I could seriously record better quality audio on my phone - as I assume we all could. What the heck? Ultimately not worth a watch or a listen IMO.

I already see that some other reviewers did not have the same experience, so YMMV. I hope you have better luck than I did!