Length: 03:40
Logline: The inventor of a time machine has trouble stopping himself from killing himself. (If that makes sense?)
Ah, the old time machine plot again. Thankfully, this shoestring budget effort has a simple but effective plot to pull it through. The paranoid scientist is well played by David Crow whose duplicity risks causing confusion for the audience but is saved by a nicely constructed plot. Crow isn't stretched too much by the role, which mainly involves saying the word "machine" as much as humanly possible and looking startled or confused. The tone is tongue and cheek though so the performance is in keeping with the mood of the film.
The shoot suffers from bad lighting so it's sometimes hard to see what's going on. This in part adds to the initial disguising of "other" characters (they all turn out to be the same guy you see) so it carries some purpose at least. After the main reveal about one minute in though, the dark surroundings get a bit annoying and you might be forced to turn up the brightness on your monitor. There's no musical track with the film and I think it's let down a bit because of that. The niggling sound effect of the time machine carries on through most of it but doesn't create much emotion.
Structurally, it's essentially an unfolding of a comedy of errors. The setup takes us in one direction then a good reveal allows the audience to then work backwards and finally return to a full circle ending. The plot is one of the joys of the film and makes for a movie that can be enjoyed time and time again (pardon the pun). A great effort considering budget, location and minimum characters.
Best Bit: Great plot getting worked around budget constraints.
Worst Bit: Cheapo title sequence.
Final thought: Of course there is that gaping plot hole in which the intruder alert activation isn't fully explained.
Read a condensed review of this film on Twitter here.
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