Review: Donna's Room
Here's a review I did of Independent Horizon Films' "Donna's Room":
A sordid tale from the minds of Stephen Lindsay and Michael bartolotta about a girl who is trapped in the basement of a seemingly decrepid building and her attempt to be free. Donna wakes up in the dank corner of a basement, hands bound and laying on a soiled matress, as her captors stand over her. Creepy premise eh? Add in the fact that she keeps blacking out, and she has no idea where she is... Well, it definitely says psychological flick. Donna is constantly drugged and forced to eat nothing but maggot covered elephant ears (or so I am guessing) ash she has to deal with the Man in Black who torments her with her past as she swims in the haze of the drugs she is injected with. But we have to ask: Who is the real captor? Is Donna the victim, or is it her captors who are the real victims?
Dina Rath did a great job in this film playing the lead role of Donna. She drew in the viewer to sense her pain and lost feelings as she is bound and drugged. Jeff Miller did well as the Man in Black, and his voice twisted the words he was creating quite well. I do feel however, that he lacked some physical presence on the screen to make himself feel more threatening. Then again, it could have been how the particular scenes with him were shot. Perhaps more closeups of the emotion in his face may have drawn it out more.
Looking at the technical end of it, the walls were very white, making the scenes feel less "abandoned." The scenes were also very blue in tint, and when mixed with the white background, made the atmosphere seem less squallid than I would have guessed the filmmakers wanted to portray. It gave the impression of a more sterile environment. Adding a bit more in the thought of visuals and lighting for mood would do this movie well, but it's still not hard to watch.
The difference in audio levels was a bit distracting in this film, and I had to keep changing the volume of my TV in order to make sure I heard everything. Normal dialogue was sometimes hard to hear, but I do give the audio team credit for capturing Dina's screams really well. They never seemed to bleed past the audio team's hands. Amazing clarity on those. Great job.
The action/struggling scenes were very well done. Any blocking done on this film was well worth it. It looked great.
I definitely think that Donna's Room was a good short film. Much better than other ones I've seen. I can't wait to see what comes next from Stephen Lindsay's pen.
Labels: donna's room, film, review
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