DON’T LOOK
(director/writer: Luciana Faulhaber; screenwriters: Danielle Killay/Jessica Boucher/story by Luciana Faulhaber; cinematographer: Sebastian Nieves ; editor: Daniel Shaw; music: Thiago Tiberio/Daniel Shaw; cast: Luciana Faulhaber (Lorena), Jeff Berg (Ted), Hailey Heisick (Sherri Baby), Jarrod Robbins (Kelley), Curtis Case (Alex), Javier E. Gómez (Sebastian), Lindsay DiFulvio (Nicole), Daniel Pappas (Will), Cortney Bressler (Young Mother), Gary Gibson (Gas Station Driver), Bella Plotkin (Young Nicole), Preston Eshelman (Young Father); Runtime: 71; MPAA Rating: NR; producers: Luciana Faulhaber/Javier E. Gómez, Lindsay Eshelman; Wild Eye Releasing; 2018)
“A flawed throwback to the 1980s slasher films.”
Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz
A flawed throwback to the 1980s slasher films, now on VOD.
Latin American female director Luciana Faulhaber, in her debut feature film and also one of the film’s stars, gives the horror pic a woman’s touch. It’s based on a story by Faulhaber, and is written by Danielle Killay, Jessica Boucher and Faulhaber.
It opens with a flashback of a young girl seeing her father over her mother’s body after hearing a gunshot, in their country house. The title is taken when the girl’s father tells her “Cover your eyes. Don’t look,” and we hear another gunshot. On the Thanksgiving weekend, the young girl Nicole (Lindsay DiFulvio) from the flashback, now a young adult, and four of her NYC friends (Ted-Jeff Berg, Lorena-Luciana Faulhaber, Alex-Curtis Case and Sebastian-Javier E. Gómez) head to that same country farmhouse which Nicole hasn’t been to since that incident. At their destination a murderous local psycho, wearing a baby-doll mask, with maybe a connection to one of the visitors, stalks them. The low-budget film, no CGIs, gets it kill quota in the last 30 minutes when it finds how useful a chainsaw is in a slasher film. The short film at 71 minutes moves at a fast pace–which is a good thing. But it’s not a good thing that the story or the characters are never given a chance to fully develop because of the short length and awkward execution of the production.
Though far from a great film, it’s still entertaining for viewers who favor this kind of simplistic formulaic slasher genre film. It’s a bummer that most of the city folk characters featured seem like shits and the country folk are redneck stereotypes, nevertheless the director shows enough craftsmanship ability to make a promising debut despite all the missteps.
REVIEWED ON 5/1/2019 GRADE: B- https://dennisschwartzreviews.com/