John the Carpenter
Written and Directed by Matt Braunsdorf
Cast: Thomas Beucler, Jared Dymbort, Mali MacConnell
Run Time: 20 Minutes
Release Date: November 12th, 2016 (NYCHFF), December 3rd, 2016 (Other Worlds Austin)

A few weeks back I was at the New York City Horror Film Festival, and one of the films that drew my instant attention was a short film called John the Carpenter, mainly for its fairly clever title. Written and directed by Matt Braunsdorf, the film is an exercise in minimalism. The film is less than twenty minutes long, has a script with almost no dialogue, a cast of three, and one of them is a co-producer who composed the film’s score. As I routinely found out at the NYCHFF, the short films featured were awesome. And John the Carpenter was just that.

John the Carpenter starts with a girl (Mali MacConnell) running through the woods from an unseen monster, while her brother John (Jared Dymbort) lay bleeding. He stumbles after her, and finds her just in time to see the beast kill her and carry her away. Revenge becomes an obsession for John. We find out from his truck’s logo, that he is in fact, John… the Carpenter. Using his skills, he builds himself a shield, and a large wooden trap and sets out to engage the beast in a fight to the death. It’s important to point out, there is nearly no dialogue here. Just man and beast… and a soundtrack that kicks ass!

Composed by star Jared Dymbort, the score echoes the classic electronic beats of John Carpenter’s Escape From New York or Big Trouble in Little China. The track called “Construction” particularly is fantastic, as John is readying for his upcoming battle. “The Carpenter and the Beast” is another killer track. At the Other Worlds Austin film festival, the film won Best Score. I have never heard a more shockingly addictive soundtrack. Speaking of awards, the film also won best cinematography at the Nightmares Film Festival.

John the Carpenter is a tremendously entertaining 20-minute film with an awesome award winning score and some cool moments. You can view the trailer below, and subscribe to director Matt Braunsdorf’s YouTube channel, as the film will be available there next month with a target date of Friday the 13th.

Video

“John the Carpenter” Official Trailer