Island (2007) User Reviews

Subtle build of atmosphere, but ultimately fruitless

[maddox0404 · 5/10 · 28 August 2008]

Caught this by accident in the wee hours of the morning on Channel 4 (great to see they're showing more shorts by the way!)

OK, so here's the good: slow and creeping sense of foreboding, helped by an ideal location for a horror film and some particularly sinister buildings. I also thought the ending shot was a great idea for the end.

The bad: very thin and predictable plot line. Absolutely nothing new to say to the audience.

And the ugly: ultimately, this seemed like the location came first followed by an empty script simply to make use of the island. It's a shame, because it felt like it was building - only it didn't go very far.

Fear of the dark

[bob the moo · 19 December 2008]

A warden of a private island off the coast of Scotland finds an abandoned boat off the shore. He heads to the island to investigate and finds a fire burning and begins looking for who is on the private property. His search continues as darkness falls and his knowledge of not being alone becomes more than just a matter of trespass.

Island is a simple film that is entirely built on one premise – that man needs to see what is around him and does not function well when it is dark. I do believe that a fear of the dark is one of those perhaps unreasonable things that we still have hardwired into us and this film is specifically drawing on this. It sets this up well with an empty island and lots of emptiness in surroundings and also the audio and then lets the darkness comes in. From here we get a lot of shots from the man's point of view as he looks where his torch is pointing and this worked well the whole way to the conclusion. The final short is a necessary conclusion to the film and I thought was suitable and quite clever, fitting the empty mysterious feel of the rest of the film, but the majority of the film is about the darkness.

This is shot really well, making good use of the torch. The sense of blackness is maintained while we are also able to see what is going on – not an easy feat to achieve. But it is achieved and it works for what it is. Those perhaps not accustom to short films might have a bit of a moan about how the film doesn't explain much or doesn't have much beyond atmosphere but they are missing the point. Here it is all about the dark and the sense of not being able to see what may or may not be in the darkness. In this regard the film is on the money and has a solid ending to top it off. Not perfect by any means but most of the problems come with the short film territory and it does what it does well.