Echoes
Written Review
Hi everyone and welcome to MyIndie Review Vlog, the
show that gives you spoiler-free reviews of indie films. My name is Asaf Angel from MyIndie Productions. Today I’m going to be reviewing 2018’s Horror Short, Echoes, written and directed by Hungarian indie filmmaker, Jòzsef Gallai.
This will be the second time we review one of Jòzsef’s films, having reviewed his 2016 horror feature, A Guidebook To Killing Your Ex, on the very first episode of MyIndie Review Vlog. Thank you Jòzsef, for sharing yet another project with our show.
The story follows a middle-aged man portrayed by Shawn Michael Clankie, who lives with his infant child in a remote cabin in the woods. The man seems to be adjusted to the secluded environment. We get a sense of every day routine as the man has breakfast, feeds his child, tends to house chores and mundane activities of that sort. Things start to get weird when the man begins to see strange characters lurking in the woods and around his home. The sightings become more and more frightening, forcing the man to seriously consider the safety of his infant child.
The film has a slow eerie rhythm to it right from the beginning. The visual feel gives a slight dissonance from the somewhat endearing premise of a single parent, caring for his infant child. The colour grade is governed by cold grey and blue tones. The visuals are complemented with subtle non-diegetic sounds that are laid as undertone. Sort of a way to tell us that something is wrong in the world of the film even before advancing the plot.
With very little dialogue, most of what we learn comes from fairly static and minimalistic visual language. Every shot has its own aesthetic and is carefully composed to convey important information. Jòzsef cleverly reveals important details about the plot, using shots that interestingly have missing elements in them. These are left for us, the viewers, to spot and try to interpret.
I suppose you can say that the filmmaking techniques used to tell this story successfully feed our curiosity as viewers. To efficiently create intrigue using slow pace and restrained cinematography is not an easy feat. It risks losing the viewer’s interest before the story gets going. But as I said in my review of A Guidebook to Killing Your Ex, Jòzsef Gallai has a flair for storytelling and he did a good job in this film as well.
To sum up, even though the film has its issues, it gives an interesting viewing experience and holds up very well in its 21-minute runtime.
Echoes gets a 7/10 on the Look at Me, I’m A Film Critic scale
The film is still on its festival run. So keep an eye out for its release.
Until next time, keep supporting Indie Film. My name is Asaf Angel, I thank you for tuning in to MyIndie Review Vlog.
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