Deadly Tantrum (2006)

26th Nov 06





Plot
Waddaya mean ‘Plot’? This baby is only five minutes long! In a nutshell, a cop (Simon Pritchard) finds mutant Geoffrey (Robert Pearce) about to kill a girl (Bethan Witcomb) via some elaborate set-up involving a shotgun.

Review
Meet Geoffrey – He's Angry, He's Stupid, He's got a Power Saw!

Enthusiastically played and presented, Deadly Tantrum, from writer / director / stop-motion animator Michael Mort, manages to outperform and entertain many films that have longer running times in just under five minutes. It makes the viewer smile from the word go lampooning the 'Based on a True Story' tags that you just know never are – Wolf Creek, Texas Chainsaw - this means you!

Costing just £2,500 the end result is refreshingly well edited with zippy camerawork to match its breakneck pace, as well as a proper score that beats the crap out of most smaller budgeted productions regardless of length. The cast are all pitch perfect in terms of their performances, each delivering their brief dialogues with the right amount of dead-pan tongue-in-cheek. I'm not sure what the dress poking out from under Geoffrey's jacket is all about though. It sticks out as the one attempt to amuse that really doesn't play right. It's a gag the makers of Freak Out would have found amusing and played out for ninety minutes. Oh hang on, I think they did.

Given out as a free disc in goodie bags at London's Frightfest, and having made a favourable impression at the genre festivals it has played, Michael Mort's movie also won second prize in the audience award at Scotland's Dead by Dawn festival. All of this bodes well for the director, who has been looking to dabble in his preferred genre and break away from the commercial work he has been involved in of late, to expand this short into a planned feature length version. I for one will definitely be keen to see it. I just hope Mr. Mort rethinks the dress.

Posted by
S Cockwell



Return to Reviews Index