Omega Diary

Benjamin Cooper, the director of this psychological suspense film, also wrote and produced it and was generally behind the camera, additionally crafting its sets in his garage, completing the feature for a remarkable $5300, a trifling sum to be sure, even for a work shot with video tape, and although the piece is consequently somewhat raggedly done, some of that is due to distributor sound distortion for its VHS product. Four friends have taken a motor trip from Colorado to California's Pacific Coast as a vacation and, while frolicking upon a beach shortly after their arrival, they hear a radio news broadcast that tells of a full nuclear "exchange" between Russia and the United States with California being one target. Fortunately for the stunned travellers, a figure of salvation appears, a young man who proffers use of his late grandfather's nearby bomb shelter and the quintet, accompanied by a woman met at the beach, speed to the shelter, reaching it immediately prior to a ground rocking explosion. Two small rooms that comprise the shelter become the setting for a largely character focused drama, tension mounting due to cramped conditions, an aura of hopelessness, and Cooper's agile cinematography, with the six characters displaying their true selves, conflicts among the group becoming nearly unendurable, finally resolving themselves by acts of passionate violence. A large truck might be driven through holes in the plot and there is no danger of overmuch artistic success for this film that is made in southern California's San Luis Obispo County; however, it is Cooper's first effort at the helm and he must be proud of it as it is something special (for the money expended) and that will certainly be more evident when it is released in DVD format; each of the players works with enthusiasm, acting honours going to Catherine Barlow as the sole female of the cloistered assemblage.