Sequence (2013) watch online HD

What a cool film. The writer/director, Charles Torrens, has posted it on Vimeo (#59773155). Torrens is also the director of "Apartment 143."

Billy, a regular guy, awakens in a regular way on a regular morning to find his girlfriend horrified of him. He has no idea why. And then his day just keeps getting weirder. As he soon finds out, all he knows is, "You're It."

What a cool concept. This is a tightly written short story, piquing the viewer's interest from the beginning and building the suspense as the viewer shares Billy's confusion. And the payoff at the end is pretty good. The concept is probably insufficient to support a feature length movie, so the story works well as a short film. The production values are great, with perfectly good cinematography, sound, and editing, plus some pretty good special effects.

Check this out, it's worth your while.

I saw this movie at the 'Shnit!' short film Festival in Bern, Switzerland. Boy was I pleasantly surprised. The beginning is relatively slow-paced, and as the viewer is trying to figure out where this strange tale might be going, the tone of the movie shifts. What follows is a suspenseful, fun-to-watch action scene, that still doesn't reveal the Punch line of the story. Before the punch line, the movie suddenly takes a violent and bloody turn. The Punch line? See for yourself. But I will say this much: The production values of this film are on par with 100mil Action Blockbusters. Pictures, sound, editing, WOW! And the story is just awesome. What a clever (funny and weird) idea!

The movie might not be for everybody because of the very graphic violence (for about one minute of the film). But for the rest?

Go watch it! You're missing out if you don't.

"Sequence" is an American 20-minute short film from 3 years ago written and directed by Carlos Torrens. It is about a man who wakes up in a world where everybody had a nightmare about him the last night. And hates him, as a consequence. The scene when he basically has the robber under control and then the little Asian clerk comes and starts hitting him was actually kinda hilarious. Overall, this film has a nice premise and elaborates well on it. The solution that it was just a dream was somewhat predictable, but it was not a disappointment either. Also, when did you last dream of a complete stranger and exactly remember his looks/face etc.? Anyway, with the ending Torrens tried to be maybe too edgy for his own good and it hurt the film a little bit. Nonetheless, it is a good achievement and nice to see Torrens still making films these days. i see talent here. He could break through one day. I recommend "Sequence".

Billy walks up on the day of his 3-year anniversary to find that his girlfriend is terrified of him – seemingly unable to shake off a nightmare she just had which featured him doing unspeakably terrible things. A bit shaken up but yet willing to let it pass, Billy heads off to his workplace only to find that his girlfriend was not the only one who had this nightmare, and it seemed everyone he meets recognizes him from the same terrible dream they had the night before – and cannot shake what they saw him do from the reality of him in front of them.

It is hard to believe that this idea has not been done before – but if it has I cannot find an example of it; the reason I even bothered to check this was because the base idea here is not only a great one, but it is also one built on an universally familiar thing of someone having a dream involving us, and waking up angry as a result. This short film takes that idea and expands it to the whole world in a way that is engaging, frightening and offers great things. As it builds, it does deliver on this, and the unspoken nature of the dream, and the suggestion of some sort of unseen hand controlling things, does raise the stakes and tension really well. Okay the engineered robbery sequence is a bit forced, but it still works thanks to the core idea. The short runs for almost 20 minutes, and it held me for the entirety of it – well, almost.

The ending is a bit of a letdown in some ways; perhaps understandably the downside of the great idea and buildup is that the payoff doesn't totally satisfy in many ways. I mean, it is certainly memorable as a conclusion (and, as a result, the end credits include a "thanks" to Society director Brian Yuzna) however it doesn't totally deliver on the great idea; maybe nothing would have though – which is testament to how good the idea was in the first place. It is convincingly sold by the cast – in particular Hursley in the lead role of the subject of the dream. Direction is also very good from writer/director Torrens, really building up tension and fear throughout the film with a very clear, bright look to the cinematography.

In the end, Sequence doesn't totally deliver in a way that totally satisfies, but this is mainly down to how well it sets itself up with a great idea, a great delivery and such an overall engaging story – it is understandable perhaps for the ending to be a bit of an anticlimax, but it does still work and, as a whole, it is a really great short film.