Dead and Breakfast

So this is going to be something a bit more unusual. I've attended the "Horror Fest" in Toronto, an event which takes amateur horror films from obscure filmmakers. As it happened some old classmates of mine had a film premiering at this event and I decided to go and see it. Their film certainly stood out as one of the better ones presented.

All of the films were shorts, not usually more than 15 minutes in length, and there were a lot of them. Many were hilariously bad to varying degrees, some apparently doing it more intentionally than others as many were self-aware of their cheesiness and obviously intended to be over-the-top.

That was with the exception of one particular film called Dead and Breakfast which as far as student films go was actually pretty impressive. The story is simple enough: a group of young women get together at a hotel. One of them is fascinated with a rare type of spider known for its habit of burrowing itself under other creatures' homes and springing into action when it detected their presence. Things get eerie when people start vanishing and being infected with something that changes them, and it seems that something very much like the spider that fascinates one of our protagonists is currently preying on our unfortunate protagonists.

If I were to provide any serious criticisms I could say the cast was underdeveloped, but there was a very clear sense of dread in the film's atmosphere and it was all built up perfectly. It even won a deserved award for best practical effects, which it uses to full advantage near the end. There is a monster featured in this movie that is created rather effectively. It didn't look fake in any way it looked like it was really there.

If you do get a chance to attend this event, this particular movie will not disappoint. Because it's a short made by college students with an extremely low budget it's hard to review it in great depth; I haven't even got any pictures, but if you can get a chance to see this particular film, you're in for a surprisingly terrifying 15-minute short.