I'm not 100% in love with this or maybe don’t get it as a short, but as a partial sequence or as a scene I have likes and dislikes. (Or am I misunderstanding, and this is just the teaser?)
I like: The camera work, acting and editing.
I really like: What seems a horror fans understanding of low budget horror that doesn’t try to be something more than what it is.
Some of the key shots create the entertaining “charm” I love in low budget horror like Troma and maybe Silent Night Deadly Night. I just don’t find that "charm" nearly enough in lower budget stuff, and while this isn’t "perfect", to me it does very much hit that entertaining mark.
As far as the Hi 8 goes, I think it fits it really well. I am tired of low or micro budget stuff that looks really clean, it steals it's soul in a way. I don't know how to describe as well as others can, but from the 1st frame of this I knew what I was getting into, and it delivered on that in a favorable way.
I didn’t like: The music at all, and the names over the freeze frames.
I wish it had: John Carpenter type lower budget horror synth music.
An ending where the lights go off in the car, then a flashlight comes on and everyone is dead except one of the girls (Meaning the creature got into the car), then the flashlight dies or begins to die. (Or some ending with more impact or implications.)
While I'm not 100% in love with what it is ( if in fact it is a short), but I do really like what it might be as a longer full storyline. I also agree, if it were full lenght I would be into it for a few bucks on DVD.
-Thanks-