Overtime
2016 · 9m · Australia
Directed by Craig D. Foster
Genres: comedy, dark comedy, horror
Tones: darkly comic, humorous, tense
Stuck at the office working overtime, mild-mannered Ralph races to get home before nightfall — because if he doesn't, his terrible lycanthropic secret will be unleashed on his unsuspecting coworkers.
Picked by Zoe
The scouts
The setup *looks* conventional—anxious guy, ticking clock, office ennui—but then it commits completely to the bit and goes full lycanthrope, which is exactly the kind of premise inversion that separates films with teeth from ones playing it safe.
Foster threads a delicate needle between tonal registers, and the restraint in how the creature effects are *withheld* until the final act speaks to a filmmaker thinking formally about suspense and reveal—though the dark comedy sits slightly uneasily against the horror syntax.
The entire film hinges on that single decision to use practical effects from Odd Studio instead of going digital or abstract, which transforms what could've been a gimmick into something tactile and genuinely unsettling—that material commitment is what makes the comedy land instead of deflate.
Reviews
OVERTIME is a ton of fun and a great way to kick off Mocktoberfest 2021 with this darkly brilliant horror comedy.
If you've ever found yourself stuck in a Sisyphean cycle of work which has quitting time receding into the horizon...
Festivals
- Fantastic Fest 2016
- Manhattan Short Film Festival 2016
- St Kilda Film Festival 2016
- Celluloid Screams 2016