So another review came in. This time by Derrick Ferguson who runs a movie review blog - The Ferguson Theater.
Let's get straight to it...
Okay. Since I like to end on a upbeat note I'll get what I didn't like about ONE FOOT IN HELL out of the way first: where'd the second doll come from? Did the evil spirit of the first doll leave that body and jump into the body of the second doll? And if so, why did it go after Alice instead of Warwick? Because she was the one who nailed it down to be BBQ'ed? if so, that was a nice touch with the way the second doll nailed her down. But that part was unclear to me. As was the ending with Warwick mailing pieces of the doll to different people. Was it because he was afraid that the spirit would just jump into another doll's body and come after them again? Again, the wasn't clear to me.
And I realize there's only so much you can do in a short film but Charlie's death is a pretty big loose end hanging out there. Did Warwick and Alice go to the police with their wild story and found themselves charged with his murder?
Now to what I did like: you've got a very clean directorial style. I myself appreciate a director who trusts his actors and his story enough that he can let them do what supposed to do and not try a whole bunch of unnecessary camera tricks and angles just to show off. You didn't do that here. You put your camera down, put your actors in front ot the camera and let them work. I liked all three of your actors very much. They were quite natural and didn't come off as "trying to act" if you know what I mean.
And that stop-motion animation was simply great. I've a major fan of stop-motion animation and I heartily support anybody keeping it alive. In fact, stop-motion animation works better in a killer doll story such as this one as for me it's a lot creepier than CGI. And I liked how you got in a bit of humor with your horror when the killer doll is standing at the top of the stairs and gives Alice that cute little wave hello.
To sum up, I liked it. It's a respectable short movie that told a short, effective story. As i said, some of the motivations of Warwick and the doll confused me slightly there near the end but it didn't prevent my overall enjoyment of the film. You and your people should be rightfully proud of it and I hope to see more work from you in the future. I don't know if any of this helps but whether it does or not, you keep on making films. And definitely continue to use stop-motion! Can't ever get enough of that.
Derrick
