East End
2022 · 10m · USA
Directed by Grant Curatola
Genres: dark comedy, horror, satire
Tones: dark, darkly comic, whimsical
After a murder-by-bludgeoning rocks a sleepy Long Island summer town, the sordid details are recounted and wildly remixed through the community's rumor mill, escalating paranoid fear and morbid curiosity to absurd heights.
Picked by Zoe
The scouts
Twelve locations, four days, 29 actors on 16mm — small-town gossip as horror telephone game. Fargo-Hot-Fuzz comp is doing some work but the structural conceit is doing more, and four-day shoots that work are always worth a look.
Twelve locations, twenty-nine actors, four shoot days, 16mm — Curatola is producing under genuine constraint, and the telephone-game gossip structure is a defensible architecture. Hot Fuzz at small scale; the conceit is sturdier than the execution may be.
Shot on 16mm across 12 locations in four days with 29 actors — that's an insane logistical achievement that the telephone-game structure honors by treating each location as a remix node. 10 minutes; the production logistics and the form are doing the same job.
Reviews
As engaging as it is ridiculous, this is a short that plays on the tropes of the Horror genre and pays homage to the classics. The result is a film that feels like a throwback to another era while also refreshingly innovative in its approach.
Coupled with a score that feels like something out of Jaws, East End manages to be macabre, lighthearted and delightfully entertaining.
Festivals
- Palm Springs International ShortFest 2022
- Slamdance Film Festival 2023
- Fantastic Fest 2023
- London Short Film Festival 2023
- Bucharest Short Film Festival