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United States of AmericaA boy wrestles with his fear and hallucination.
SynopsisTormented by one surreal, terrifying predicament after another, a boy is confronted with his inner fear. As the air becomes harder and harder to breath, as his tormentors become stranger and press in closer, the boy begins to realize the true nature of his situation.
Director's StatementMy son's first role!
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Directed by
Joseph Christiana -
Written by
Joseph Christiana -
Produced by
Joseph Christiana - THE NIGHTMARE Website
Written by: Joseph Christiana
Produced by: Joseph Christiana
Cast
Crew
On BadLit Underground Film Website: (The Nightmare) is a nicely done and genuinely creepy horror short film by filmmaker Joseph Christiana called The Nightmare. It’s shot in a very nice B&W and features a young boy first being pursued by … Well, actually I don’t want to give any descriptions about this one, but after a simple opening, I found myself quickly engrossed and spooked. Watch it first, then read below to see if you agree. Christiana takes a couple generic horror standards and an easy “target” to generate suspense, i.e. a child in peril, but keeps the largely wordless story moving along at a nice clip to get the audience quickly hooked. Shooting in B&W gives the film an eerie, otherworldly feel so that when the scenes shift abruptly, it’s easy to go along for the ride. The perspective also changes quite frequently, easily shifting from taking the victim’s perspective to put the audience into his young, terrified shoes to showing us his reactions to the horrible visions he must face. For a virtually wordless film, Christiana does a great job getting audience to identify with the main character and allows us to reflect on our own fears that we all faced in childhood. There’s also lots of other nice things working strongly in the film’s favor, from the the spooky, almost background-noise-like soundtrack to the really creative ending. The film’s only about six minutes long, but Christiana packs a good amount of terror into it and manages that short time wisely by making every shot really count.
On Candlelight Stories Site: Joseph Chrisitiana made this excellent low-budget short horror film. His lead actor is his young son who does a wonderful job under truly creepy and nightmarish circumstances. The film moves with the horrifying logic of a true nightmare, with one certain death situation leading illogically but believably into another. This film had me totally with it the whole way through to its brilliant ending.
The film was largely improvised, one scene informed the next, with nothing written down or preconceived until just before we decided to shoot.
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Director
Joseph Christiana
A lot to like here. The intensity of fear that pervades throughout is, well, intense. The changes in the pacing of that fear, from the slow start in the woods, to the running, to the slow hallway, to the running, etc. was very effective at ratcheting up the suspense. The boy did a great job with the role. And the final scene is well-conceived, fitting for the genre. There is a point, however, when technique is used over substance. I understand the context for the endless jump cuts and lighting effects (don't want to spoil), but they eventually called too much attention to themselves, and honestly, I thought the more "normal" scenes far more troubling. Definitely one of my favorite shorts so far. Nice work.