Short Film Review

The films starts of with a fade from black transition to the title of the film "Invaders", which is shown on a close-up shot of a welcome mat. Their is the diegetic sound of wind blowing in background as emphasised by the brown leaves that are falling from the sky onto the mat. The transition after it ends how it started with it fading to black.

 

The next scene again fades from black and is long shot of a suburban American house in the night, with a yellow car in front of the house. The windows of it showcase a man looking directly at the house, making it look like they are planning on robbing the house. The diegetic wind from earlier continues playing throughout the scene. It then cuts to a close up shot of the house's front window. the bright lighting inside the house contradicts with the dark light outside of it as it conveys that everything is beautiful and peaceful inside the house an that scenery might get disrupted soon. This can be further proved by what is happening inside the house as their is family having a Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner, as shown by the giant turkey being placed on the table, at the end of the table is a young girl playing with a dog, and at the centre we see the other people smiling and talking to one another, which again shows that upbeat attitude the scene is trying to showcase. It then cuts to a close up shot of the front door of the house, which displays holly berry ring on it, so it shows that this happening at Christmas. The sound then displays a couple of guys arguing while the scene cuts to a close up of the cars back tyre, and the cars back headlights, as if they will foreshadow events to will soon come.

 

The scene then cuts the front of the car where we see the driver and passenger of the car, dressed in suits and ties, having an argument that was heard a few shots back. The passenger of the vehicle is wearing a black balaclava on his face, to show that they are the bad guys in the story, and that it looks like the are going to rob the house. The driver then brings a duffel bag from the back of the car and starts pulling out different types of masks and tries them on. It then goes to shot reverse shot, and over the shoulder shot, of the two invaders, with the driver continuing to pull out masks, and the passenger increasingly getting more angry with what the passenger is doing. The drive then puts on a chipmunk style mask and grabs a knife like he is practising on stabbing somebody. The camera then does a tracking shot s it acts like it is on the end of the knife and is moving back and forth whenever the knife moves. The non-diegetic music then plays when the scene starts, and the style of it is completely different than to what is actually happening on screen. It is calm and tranquilising, as if this a peaceful moment than should be remembered, even though the scene is the total opposite with what the music is. The lighting further expands on it as it flashes when the knife is extended the most, to again display that tranquil style it wants to develop. That setting is interrupted when the scene does a close-up of the passenger's neck and shows the knife stabbing into it. The music stops as their is a medium shot of the knife landing in the back of the car, and also does a close-up of the gear shift of the car as in all the commotion happening, the passenger accidentally pushes it forward. The passenger continues screaming in pain after the incident, and the scene goes back to a shot-reverse-shot. The driver than pulls out a couple of cut-out pilgrim masks, and the passenger in a fit of annoyance says yes to them and proceeds to get out of the car. It then goes to a medium shot behind the front car seats as the passenger exits. The driver then looks away like he is fed up as shown by the front rear view window, and then proceeds to leave as well.

 

The scene then cuts from an eye-line shot of the door as it focuses on the two invaders walking up to the house, and the driver ends up getting a close up of his face, which he is now wearing the pilgrim mask. The same tranquil music from the stabbing scene returns to again exploit that this is actually a beautiful moment for them. The close-up shot hangs on his face for a while as if he is prepping up for what he is about to do. It then does an over the shoulder shot behind the man to see that the driver is holding an axe, and then leans forward in order to ring the doorbell. It then goes back to face the men on a medium shot to see that the passenger has also got the same attire his friend has, while the audience also sees them looking at the door and sort glances at each other for quite a long period of time. This is further proved by the scratching mannerisms and the driver has, while the passenger tries to get a better grip on his axe. This could emphasise that these 2 invaders are not exactly bright and this cold be their first time doing this sort of thing, as it could be further emphasised by the stabbing scene from earlier.

The shot then cuts to a medium shot behind the two invaders as the door opens to reveal the father of the house and looks at the driver in a surprised look. It cuts back to the two invaders as the driver say the line he was going to use in order to intimidate their victims. However it gets interrupted when it goes back to the father, who yells "what the f**k", before a close up on the driver's face to show that the father stuck a meat slicer into his face. The diegetic sound of the machine buzzing emphasises the impact the machine had on his face. It goes to a long shot of the house as we see the father slamming the door in their faces and presumably return to his family. It also shows the window of where the family is, which just has them eating dinner as if the don't know the events that had just happened. This enhances the comedy aspect the movie wants as this stunt happened it just a couple seconds and it didn't go the way the main characters were planning and caught the audience by surprise. This will leave them thinking what just aspired in that couple of seconds and will want time to think it over. But the scene continues as it goes back to the close up of the driver's face as blood starts spurting out onto the camera. The calm music still continues after these events which doesn't fit the mood of what the movie is trying to convey. It again shows the comedy of the scene as the blood just came out of nowhere and the music is the exact opposite with that scene of the movie.

The next cut transitions to a first person view of the passenger, as shown by the two eyeholes of his mask, as the driver slowly faces him with the blood still gushing out of his face an all over the passenger. The heavy breathing the passenger develops shows his paranoia and fear of what just happened. It then goes to a tracking shot of the man heading for the car as he wants to get out of hear as fast as possible. It closes in on his hands as he is trying to open the car door but it won't open and briefly feels around his pockets. The same long shot of the house shows the driver still standing while bleeding, and the passenger looking at him, which shows us that the driver has hold of the car keys. That single scene lasts for a couple a seconds as if it wants to take to time for people to understand the message. It cuts back to a tracking shot of the passenger throwing his mask off and calmly walks to where the driver is. He then starts to freak out when the camera zooms in on him fiddling around his dead friend's pockets as he is being showered with his blood. It cuts to a close up shot of the passenger's hands trying to find the right the key, but then cuts to a medium shot of where the mask is lying, where the passenger slips, bangs his neck against the car's headlights (the same style shot at the beginning), and closes up on his face where we see blood squirting out from it to show he got seriously injured. The way he has his hands around his neck and his loud choking noises helps to further that claim. The non-diegetic music abruptly holts when he bangs his neck as if now the film decides the tranquillity is gone as both men are close to dying. This is also a good bit of comedy as another person ended hurting himself when we thought that it looked like he was going to escape this place, again catching the audience off guard.

 

The film goes back to the medium shots of the door and window, as the door is covered with the diver's blood, and the window shows the lights are off meaning that they all went to bed. It cuts back to the knife that is still stuck in the back of the car, but it then lowers down as we see the passenger trying to sit up. We see that his neck is brutally slashed by the layer of skin that is sticking out from his wound. He starts shaking and spitting what looks to be teeth and blood, to show the state he is in, but it cuts back to the long shot of the house, as him sitting up an resting himself against the car causing it to drive along the road with him laying down, continually having seizures. When the car disappears from view, the credits slowly fade during that single scene of the 2 guys slowly dying in front of the father's house. They are nothing special with it only being bold, with no special type of text as if this is just a normal situation that happens on a regular basis. There is no non-diegetic music being played during the credits as the only thing that can be heard is the diegetic sound of the blood pouring from the driver's face onto the ground.