User reviews

This short film is based on a true story of a journalism student who hears a story of a man who walked into a launderette to find a bunch of students putting each other through tumble dryers for kicks. He decides to make this the subject of his uni assignment, and sets out to find members of this club. In doing so, he finds himself becoming the instigator for such a gathering. Being written by the individual who was the center of the true story, there is interesting ground here in terms of urban myths, the power of buzz, and that horrible feeling that one gets when lies or pranks get out of control.

All of these elements are sort of in here, but the film focuses a bit too much on the practical telling of the story. As such we follow the main character as he investigates an urban myth. This is stylishly done and there is a feeling of him accidentally starting something, and this continues until its natural end. I liked where it went in terms of the main character losing control and realizing his place in something terrible - something that he maybe helped make more than a myth (but then also maybe not). This element comes too late in the film though; I liked that it did this rather than be jokey or anything else it could have done, but I wanted more of it and not just a footnote. For me this is the story, because it says a lot and links to that feeling we all have had when a prank or lie gets too big and we can't stop what it did even though we got away clean ourselves.

Slickly made short film, but there is a lot in the final scenes that needed to be across the rest of the film in some form.