"Subject 7" and "Monster"

It's a two for one day on the Indie Reviews !

I haven't done a review in a few days and probably won't be doing another for awhile.  I find myself not having as much time to devote to watching things to review.  That's one reason that today's review is of two short films.

Both movies took less than 30 minutes to watch.

I am also going to try and make an effort to watch more of the short movies on Amazon Prime because I have noticed with my own titles that they don't seem to find as many viewers.  Maybe it's vice verse.  Whatever, not as many people watch them and they don't have the shelf life of the features.  Hopefully these reviews will help a bit more.

Since shorts do tend to be a bit "one trick", especially in the sci-fi and horror genres, I won't be able to say a whole lot without spoiling what is likely to be a "twist ending".

First film up, "Subject 7".  It has won numerous awards according the art work on the IMDB page. I won't say it didn't deserve them, but I didn't see a whole new, special or groundbreaking in the 18 minutes.  It's a well shot movie and Alex Fandel does a fine job as the woman who awakes in the woods with only a tattoo to give her a hint as to how she wound up there.  She wanders around, presumably trying to find a way to civilization as her body begins to "itch" and go numb.  The problems here were that we could have gotten the story in three minutes.  At least what story we're presented with.  The longer run time is all for build up.  It's never easy to do a movie that doesn't rely on dialogue to get plot points across, but abandoning the plot altogether doesn't seem like a proper trade off.  I had no idea who "subject 7" was, who she was getting away from and where she was headed.  I did make the mistake of a reading a review with a spoiler and perhaps if I hadn't, the tension would have held me longer.  Here is the trailer for you to watch.  Read no more than this before you watch the movie.

Now, onto "Monster".  Quite a few movies on Amazon Prime with this title, so be sure to use the link to find the one starring Alex O'Toole.

Okay, so it's five minutes long.  Another one that's more about build  up than pay off.  Honestly, I think this is the result of so many of us growing up on "The Twilight Zone" and thinking that if the ending is unexpected, it's enough.  There was actually a lot more to those old shows than serving up a clever one liner at the end of the episode.

Monster is dialogue light (not sure if I remember any), which is fine, but it is also, in my opinion, light on monster action.  Take that opinion with a grain of salt.  I like to revel in the monster even if it's a 1970s Doctor Who rubber menace that never should have been put in front of a camera.  The acting is good, the movie is shot and edited well enough, but again, it's exactly what you expect from a short film now.  Maybe all of the film festivals have just caused me to see too many of these.  There's nothing to make "Monster" a strong recommend, but there is nothing at all wrong with the movie.  If you need five minutes of slightly tense entertainment, this is a good place to find it.  It's also currently "Free with Ads", so you don't even need Prime to watch it.