The Short Round: HOUSE CALL Or Don't Kill A Man With A Vengeful Witch For A Mom

Review by: Spooky Sean

House Call is a solid short about the dangers of killing a man whose mama has sway in the dark arts. Written and directed by Eric L. Wilson, it contains both subtle and over the top scares.

The acting is decent, with the best performances coming from Janet Gawrys as Mother, and Michael Jordan (yes, that's his real name) as Steve, who has the double duty of playing boyfriend and man possessed by the spirit of ex, dead boyfriend.

What really strikes you about the flick is the special effects. It's always nice to see effective, CG work in short films from up and coming filmmakers, and House Call contains some decent ghost wisps. Hell, the ghost wisps in The Fog remake were enough to trick me into thinking that movie wasn't a steaming pile of shit, for a little while at least. People don't give credit where credit is due with genre films and special effects workers. Sure, hobby reviewers such as myself and other crazy obsessed film fans will look up who did the special effects, but it seems the casual moviegoer will never bother to find out who created those cool special effects they casually commented that they liked after a film. Did this just become a rant? Okay, reel er in Sean…ehem…the make up work by Tony Wash was cool, and the special effects by Emre Cihangir were awesome.

Of course, I just skimped over talking about all sorts of other talented people involved, such as the cinematographer Mike Bove, and the editor…oh damn, Emre Cihangir had double duty on this beast. Right on, man.

One other thing, thank you House Call, for showing a woman in her pajamas. So often, ladies in houses in horror flicks are just walking around in a thong with stilettos or something, and while I'm hardly against this, it isn't realistic, and tends to take me out of the proceedings. Look, nudity is cool, but if you're just throwing it in to make up for a lack of film making prowess, why wouldn't I just go watch a porn? I want to be scared, and boobs don't scare me. Unless they belong to that old woman from the Kubrick version of The Shining, in room 237.

So, if you want some cool ghost wisps, and some fun one-liners based around anniversaries, go check out House Call.

(Sean lives a quiet life, with a world of darkness locked away inside his fevered mind. He grew up in Central Massachusetts. In his free time he writes for his blog www.spookysean.com, and creates fiction your parents wouldn’t approve of.)