With part of the evening to myself, with my ‘workload’ all caught up to date (well, for today anyways) I sat down at my desk. Turned off the lights, placed a pair of headphones on my head and started my first viewing of ‘The Foreboding : Fractured’ a 26 minute film written by Alexander Staunton-Hill ( 2022’s Baggage), and directed by Kemal Yildirim. Short running time films fascinate me. With a feature film or a television show, we have enough time to let the characters develop, and the world in which the show or feature is set has a decent running time to allow us to settle into living there and to get to know it. With a short film of course that time is far, far less and can often go ‘wrong’  I’ve definitely seen more feature films and television shows than I have short films but I have seen a lot of short films over the years and sometimes with a short film I just don’t ‘click’ with it which I know could just be that I need to get used to the limited space a short film has to breathe or it could be that the short film should have (in my humble opinion) been longer which would have allowed me to connect with it more.  However, with The Foreboding:Fractures, it took me only 2-3 minutes to be 100% connected with the characters on screen (yes I checked the clock when that connection happened) and I was in for the duration. The film had me!

Starting off with a wonderful homage to the classic scene from Stand By Me, we the audience are along for a journey with Lauren ( Played by Olivia Bennett ), Abigail ( Played by Eve Kathryn Oliver ), Aaron ( Played by  Peter Tilley ) and Connor ( Played by Alexander Staunton-Hill ) who walk down some train tracks and are headed for what we learn is a bit of a camping trip.  From there a spooky tale is told around the campfire and things get…you know…spooky.   The cast list is minimal but their performances aren’t ( two thumbs up to all the cast of this film- great work). I was totally sold to the relationships with each other and they all felt really natural with each other which helped me buy into this story. Add to the characters and plot – the talent that is director Kemal Yildirim, who is so damn good with his camera work not just in The Foreboding: Fractured but pretty much every film I have seen Kemal’s camerawork in. The majority of the film is set out in the woods or a field and yet the film has so many visually beautiful shots that it makes the film more cinematic than a film set in a forest could end up being, in a non talented pair of hands. If you haven’t seen film work by Kemal Yildirim, then treat yourself! His IMDB is here

Credit also has to go to Alexander Staunton-Hill who not only plays Connor in the film but who also wrote the story of The Foreboding:Fractured. In a 26 minute film (including end credits) Alexander has created a story with only a handful of characters who have all got to be given enough dialogue and scenes to ‘feel real’ and for that story not to feel crammed into the short run time of the film- and I will say all the characters did feel real and the story didn’t feel crammed at all. Yes I was left with a few ‘why, what, and where’s after the film had finished but I would like to think that The Foreboding:Fractured will perhaps arrive on screens as a feature film one day and that this short film is a tease for that longer movie.  I definitely enjoyed the film and felt it was a treat for my evening, and so if you want to treat yourself. Then do check out The Foreboding:Fractured when you can.