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Directed by Joseph Morel
Starring Bethany Clara Holmes and Sophie Rutter
Short Film Review by Rachel Pullen
Survival is built into human nature, and sometimes when we face certain situations we have to make a choice that may be difficult in order to ensure that we continue to live, and often these choices may be at the expensive of someone else.
This is the subject of Joseph Morel’s short film What It Takes.
This short jumps straight into the action, two young ladies, played by Bethany Clara Holmes and Sophie Rutter, barricade themselves into a room during a chase from some unknown predators, they quickly devise a plan in order to escape the enemy which involves one of them being the bait as the other opens the door and hits them over the head from behind.
This seems like an ok...ish plan, I mean they don’t have a lot of options in this situation but of course our living bait is not to keen on the plan seeing as she is going to be the one in the line of fire, yet her friend reassures her, confident in her ability to defeat the oncoming predators.
Yet to the audience’s surprise instead of slaying the enemy she lets her friend get attacked as she runs to safety, literally embodying the extreme measures that humans will go to in order to ensure their safety.
This whole piece is shot in one room, pretty much from the same angle, we are thrown into the room, along for the ride with these two victims feeling their panic and their desperation to survive.
The simplicity of the location gives What It Takes its atmosphere, there is no fancy lighting or location, its basic, like the feeling of survival, everything is stripped away and until we are left with just emotion and choices.
Morel makes a great choice by not allowing the audience to see the predators, from the sounds they make it seems to the viewer that they are likely to be zombies, but like all good horror directors, knowing when to and when not to show the villain in a film is something that can make it or break it.
This is clearly a low budget film and that of course comes with restrictions, in this case it is the choice of actors, their performances are not terrible but at the same time it feels a touch unnatural and so lacks believability, and of course sound issues are present, but if anyone has ever made a film they will know how much of a ball ache getting good quality sound can be, so this can be overlooked as it is not inaudible.
Overall What It Takes is an interesting film, cramming a lot into only two minutes and with a great twist ending this is certainly something not to be missed for any horror/zombie fans.
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