Remote (2009) - By Josh Samford

Film Reviews: Remote (2009) - By Josh Samford
Posted on Thursday, July 02, 2009 @ 05:07:21 Mountain Daylight Time by Duane

Even though it's probably not the best idea for a lot of independent filmmakers out there, surprisingly a few of the best low budget flicks I've had the good graces to sit down to review have been pretty high concept flicks. Sci-fi in particular. It's kind of hard to tackle issues with aliens from another planet or dystopian future landscapes when your budget is based mainly on what your full time job gives you to work with. However, when filmmakers are witty enough to think of ways to deal with these types of issues in a way that fits into their means, it can sometimes be pretty effective. I'm not going to say it's always a good idea, after all, Ed Wood had a lot of lofty goals when he was making Plan 9 From Outer Space too. Filmmaker Marc Roussel from Ontario thankfully was able to do everything right with his short film Remote, by taking a high concept idea and limiting it to a situation involving a very intimate and select group of people. Starting with a smart script and moving forward, the end product is one of the more thought provoking and dare I say "cool" short features I've seen this year.

Remote tells the story of Matt, a busy man just looking to spend an afternoon after work in front of the TV before taking a nap. However, when a massive storm comes through, his night takes a turn for the strange. At first, the television simply goes out to snow - waking him up from his nap, but then something dances across the screen. Something he can't quite make out, but with a channel change the picture comes in clear. It's a young woman in her underwear staring back at Matt. At first she thinks it's a trick and Matt at first thinks something has happened with the television - but as the two are soon to find out, whatever is happening has far greater reach than the cable company. The two soon discover that a rift in time has opened between their television sets, as this young woman lives in the 1970's and as a quick Google search reveals for Matt, she's in immediate danger on this very night.

With a bevy of twists and turns, Remote takes you down so many twists and turns while it directly manipulates its audience. Just when you start to think you have the whole thing wrapped up and you can guess where the film ends - it stuns you with a little shocker from out of nowhere. Definitely a fun short, that's for sure! Director Roussel provides a dark vision of parallel realities and a twisted look at what can be taken from the scifi genre without getting overly involved in trying to impress the audience with any big visual effects. Clocking in at roughly twenty minutes, it's a medium length short film but certainly worth it if you can get a chance to search it out. You can check out the official production company Red Sneakers Media website at RedSneakersMedia.net, check them out asap!