Last One Screaming
Written and Directed by Matt Devino
Starring Camilla Greenberg, Olivia Mackenzie Smith, Derek Weston, Nick Biron
Runtime: 10 minutes
Assorted Kinds
Released date: February 18, 2019 (YouTube)

Horror short films have become a passion of mine as I began attending more film festivals. Matt Devino‘s Last One Screaming played back in December at the New York City Horror Film Festival, continuing a successful festival run. The film takes only ten minutes to leave its mark on a horror fan, playing with genre tropes and conventions and treating the fan with respect. It begins its run on YouTube today.

The film opens with a blood-stained Ashley sitting handcuffed in a police interrogation room. Ashley is played by Camila Greenberg, an acting veteran with 40 IMDb credits and appearances in countless popular shows. She’s joined by Dr. Warren (Olivia Mackenzie-Smith) of the FBI and asked to detail what happened as two keystone cops laugh from behind the one-way glass. As Ashley recounts her tale of a cabin in the woods (sound familiar?), and a mysterious puzzle box (sound familiar-er?), and demonic possession, and bodily dismemberment (you get the picture), Dr. Warren takes it all in wanting to know more, while the cops snicker away privately.

Whereas most horror films would spend their budgets and time showing the scenes pivotal to the plot, Devino shows us next to nothing except for brief glimpses of Ashley grabbing an assortment of weapons out of the horror-movie playbook. If this was a feature, the first five minutes would segue into a flashback of the brutal events, but Devino subverts those expectations and keeps the story grounded with a minimalist cast and approach, and uses wink-and-nod dialogue to make true horror aficionados smile. It helps that Camila Greenberg tells a great story with a great “final girl” look, and Kenny Gray‘s original score is fantastic.

Last One Screaming debuted on YouTube today. Watch the entire short here below.

Video

LAST ONE SCREAMING | Short Horror Film

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