PopHorror Let's Get Scared
We’ve been following Australian Writer/Director/Editor/Producer Adam Weber since we first reviewed his twisted short, After Hours (2016 – read our review here), starring Bill Oberst, Jr. (read our interview with him here). Next, we watched his stomach-churning 2018 short, The First Date (2018 – read our review here). Now, we’re looking at his newest short, a crime comedy called The Body.
The Body was written, directed, produced and cast by Adam Weber, and stars The First Date’s Anton Schrama, Marc Clement and Tim Hawkins (60 Seconds 2 Die: 60 Seconds 2 Die 2018). Corrie Emory (Star Wars III: Revenge Of The Sith 2005) was in charge of practical FX while Editor Rowan Pullen (Arc Raider 2017) took care of the visual FX. Composer Richie Robinson of The Blue Lounge Sound Studio created the score and the band The Broken Vibes wrote and performed the songs “Cold-Blooded” and “Knockout Queen” for the film.
Synopsis:
A hit man and his potential protege are tasked with burying a body in the countryside but the seemingly simple job takes an unexpected turn.
The film opens with a beautiful aerial shot of the Australian desert as a dilapidated Thunderbird rumbles down a dusty highway, a poppin’ Blues tune playing over the scene. The car is being driven by naive, overcompensating Steve (Schrama) – or Steve-o, as he likes to be called – who is meeting up with the experienced, jaded hitman, Darryl (Clement), so the older man can show his young protege the ropes on body dispersal. This is the first time they’ve ever met. According to Darryl, Steve-o brought all of the wrong equipment to get rid of a dead body, including a butcher knife, a rope and a leaf blower. The guy is already dead, for Pete’s sake!
Favorite line:
When Darryl asks him what he’s going to use a Michael Myers knife for, Steve-o picks it up and starts stabbing at the air in from of the older man’s chest. Darryl: “Who are you, Michael fucking Myers?” Steve-o looks around nervously. Steve-o: “Michael Myers? Did you bring someone else?”
For Darryl, the fact that good ol’ Steve-o doesn’t even know who Michael Myers is just proves that his new friend is a lost cause. But after a few minutes, you suddenly realize that we really don’t know what job is really being performed here.
What a great short The Body is! I am very much impressed with what Adam Weber brought to fruition with this film. He’s tightened up his editing, which results in a story with a much more consistent flow. I love how the lighting is used in the short as well. The red trunk light and the white floodlights help to transfer your attention from one man to the other, while also giving the body itself its own personality. The lighting also helps to separate the men from everything else around them. They are two ships meeting in a sea of absolute, all-encompassing blackness, completely alone in their singular story. If a man is murdered in the middle of a desert, was there really a crime?
Adam Weber’s The Body is above and beyond what the filmmaker has offered to the indie horror world so far. He’s taken what he’s learned and created a film that far surpasses the first two, which are both fantastic in their own right. If you get the chance to watch it, you won’t regret it.
