VCI Entertainment Short Films Contest Winners (2007 DVD)

 

Picture: C     Sound: C-     Extras: C-     Shorts: C-

 

 

In the summer of 2006, VCI held a contest for short film directors to be distributed on DVD.  Centering on directors based out of Oklahoma, they picked five winners and a special honorable mention to have exposure on a national scale.  The following are the winning recipients:

 

 

Carthage is the story of the legend of a mythical monster Mr. Buttons and the town he terrorizes.  An arguing couple drives through the town of Carthage and to stop his girlfriend (wife?) from whining he tells her the story of Mister Buttons.  Just as she starts to freakout at the story, their car starts to run out of gas.  They pull into Carthage to find a gas station and a place to stay for the night.  They find a lodge that is open, but no one is there.  The woman stays at the motel as the male goes to find gas.  The female wants to take a shower, but finds buttons everywhere. And right on cue, strange occurrences start to happen around the motel.

       Meanwhile, the male finds a garage that is filled with classic cars of all makes and models.  Just like the lodge, the garage is abandoned.  As the traveler looks around the place, he looks in the rest room to find it a filthy mess.  Among the toilet paper, paper towels and human excrement thrown about, buttons are all over just like the motel's bathroom.

       What follows is your standard horror fare of a horrible creature who was traumatized and abused as a child, becomes a hideous freak and terrorizes the town and any strangers that happen to wander into it.  The gimmick of this short's monster is that it has buttons sown in to its flesh.  The film never reaches a level suspense that wants to make you jump out of your seat and the look of Mister Buttons is laughable.

 

My Grade: "D"

 

 

Life's Little Gaps tells the story of two brothers Bill and Evan, who is mentally handicapped and their friend Gary.  Gary is a practical joker and somewhat mean spirited to Evan.  The short opens as the three friends are awakened by a phone call for Bill.  Bill (who is called "Bubba" by Evan") has to go into work and as he dresses he makes sure Evan knows what to do in case of an emergency.  Bill leaves for work and Gary and Evan play video games.  While playing, Gary complains to Evan about how Bill ignores him and never listens to any of his suggestions.  Evan defends his brother and Gary makes fun of him for it.  Suddenly the two friends hear a crash and realize someone is trying to break into the house.  Following Bill's instructions, Evan grabs the cordless phone and runs into the closet with Gary and locks the door.  The burglar gets into the home and starts to ransack the place looking for loot.  In the closet Evan shakes with fear while clutching the phone.  Gary yells at Evan to call 911, but Evan is afraid to make the call, fearing the burglar will hear him and break into the closet.  Evan finally calls for help, and just as he feared, the robber hears the two men and starts to break in the closet door.

        I won't give any more of the short's story away, so as not to ruin the surprise ending for you.  What I will tell is that Evan is safe, but we learn of mysterious secret involving Gary.  I found this short to be very entertaining and suspenseful.  It is the best of this DVD's short films.

 

My Grade: "B+"

 

 

Live or Die, Your Choice is the story of a young African-American male trying to quit the gang life.  Most of the film is dialogue between the boy and his mother and friends who try to convince him to that if he continues to hang with his "friends", he'll end up dead.  The short has a very important message, but I found myself distracted by the film's poor production quality and bad acting.  The film looks like it was done with someone's hand held home video camera.

 

My Grade: "C"

 

 

Timmy is the disgusting story of a mother of a mentally handicapped son who hires the bullies that pick on her son to lure him into the woods so that he can be eaten/destroyed by a mysterious monster that lurks their.  SKIP THIS!!!

 

My Grade: "D"

 

 

Witch Cop The adventures of a warlock for the Salem Police Department who uses his powers and skills of witchcraft to fight super-natural crime. We get two adventures: "Dazz-All Folks" and "The Bare Nessie-Essities".  These shorts try to be satirical and funny.  Let's say "tries" and leave it at that.  Oh, and by the way, the shorts sound track is out of sync with the film, though we are not certain that is from the production or the DVD transfer.

 

My Grade: "C-"

 

 

 

The DVD's Extras include trailers for "Carthage", "Life's Little Gaps", "Live or Die, Your Choice" and "Timmy".  There is also a discussion and interview with each short's director and trailers for independent horror films to be released by VCI.  The picture and sound quality of the DVD depends on the short you are watching.  They range from home video to theatrical release.  The Aspect Ratio is at 4 X 3/1.33 X 1 with letterboxed 16 X 9/1.78 X 1 often.  The audio is Dolby Digital 2.0, which ranges from stereo to barely stereo.  As you can see, I rated each short individually, but as a whole I would have to give it a "C-".

 

 

-   Marc Greisinger