Ah, sometimes I could kick myself. I spoke online with Peter Dukes months and months ago when we connected on LinkedIn. In fact, it may have been over a year ago. The point is that Peter pointed me towards his company, Dream Seekers Productions, and asked if I'd be interested in checking out their stuff. Of course I would.
Unfortunately, time constantly gets away from me. You'd think that I could squeeze in a short film here or there and do a review and that would be that, everyone would be happy (or unhappy, depending on how I rated the film), but I just kept being unable to find the time. This is why I don't often view/review short films. It's not because I dislike them (I LOVE many short films), but I just don't always find the time to squeeze them in, between other scheduled reviews for my blog and the main website I write for.
Anyway, here I am at last, and Little Reaper is a great short film that I hope everyone gets to quicker than I did. I'll be checking out more from Dream Seekers Productions, they have their YouTube channel, and I'll be spreading the good word to make up for my tardiness (sorry, Peter).
What's this one about, then? Well, The Grim Reaper (John Paul Ouvrier) is trying to get through to his teenage daughter (Athena Baumeister), but she just doesn't seem to care about the family business. She has one day to do some reaping, and if that goes well she can be ungrounded. Not a bad deal, but teenagers can get so easily distracted.
Written and directed by Dukes, this is nicely presented in black and white, easy to enjoy within about 10 minutes and very, very likable. The two main performances from Ouvrier and Baumeister are excellent, and a number of supporting players have some fun getting themselves on the "due to be reaped" list.
All in all, this is a lot of fun, and certainly one I could hold up alongside a number of fine shorts that I've seen at various festivals. The ONLY reason I'm not giving it a perfect score is because a comedy horror with a fun punchline is one of the easier ways to make a good impression with the format (although it still takes talent, of course).
Unfortunately, time constantly gets away from me. You'd think that I could squeeze in a short film here or there and do a review and that would be that, everyone would be happy (or unhappy, depending on how I rated the film), but I just kept being unable to find the time. This is why I don't often view/review short films. It's not because I dislike them (I LOVE many short films), but I just don't always find the time to squeeze them in, between other scheduled reviews for my blog and the main website I write for.
Anyway, here I am at last, and Little Reaper is a great short film that I hope everyone gets to quicker than I did. I'll be checking out more from Dream Seekers Productions, they have their YouTube channel, and I'll be spreading the good word to make up for my tardiness (sorry, Peter).
What's this one about, then? Well, The Grim Reaper (John Paul Ouvrier) is trying to get through to his teenage daughter (Athena Baumeister), but she just doesn't seem to care about the family business. She has one day to do some reaping, and if that goes well she can be ungrounded. Not a bad deal, but teenagers can get so easily distracted.
Written and directed by Dukes, this is nicely presented in black and white, easy to enjoy within about 10 minutes and very, very likable. The two main performances from Ouvrier and Baumeister are excellent, and a number of supporting players have some fun getting themselves on the "due to be reaped" list.
All in all, this is a lot of fun, and certainly one I could hold up alongside a number of fine shorts that I've seen at various festivals. The ONLY reason I'm not giving it a perfect score is because a comedy horror with a fun punchline is one of the easier ways to make a good impression with the format (although it still takes talent, of course).
