A woman moves into her new house that she find out that she shares with a couple of creepy crawlies, but these aren't your normal spiders as they are huge. This is because of some chemical substance that has been washed into the suburbs drains. She decides to get a bug exterminator to rid these pests, but it suddenly falls back onto her to finish the job or she might be their next victim.
This particular short by Ellory Elkayem went on to help to spawn the feature length film '8 Legged Freaks' (2003). Just like his feature length production and this movie short, it's basically homage and owes a lot to the 1950's age of paranoia and B-grade Sci-fi flicks that flooded that era. It runs for about just under 15 minutes and Elkayem has ingeniously put together an enticing story that becomes good fun. I even go to say I enjoyed it more than the bigger production. This piece didn't entirely just play for laughs and I thought it worked better that way. Most of the time it was highly taut, suspenseful and the director keeps things running smoothly. They worked in the small slabs of humour rather well, by making certain aspects that are naturally funny, than actually trying to be so. Without the stupidity and goofiness of the feature length. The effects range from rubbery to computer generated, but it definitely isn't distracting, but adds a nice charm to it all. But hey at least its not overcooked with its effects, but it generates an uneasy feel, especially if you can't stand spiders. A mostly upbeat tempo within the score makes it move along and adds more to the atmosphere. That being shot in black and white contributed a lot too. The few performances are subtly good, but they aren't really given too much to do as the script reasonably sparse, with the main concentration on the mood it creates and gripping action pieces.
'Larger than Life' is a refreshing, brisk and well-executed short that might get under your skin.
This particular short by Ellory Elkayem went on to help to spawn the feature length film '8 Legged Freaks' (2003). Just like his feature length production and this movie short, it's basically homage and owes a lot to the 1950's age of paranoia and B-grade Sci-fi flicks that flooded that era. It runs for about just under 15 minutes and Elkayem has ingeniously put together an enticing story that becomes good fun. I even go to say I enjoyed it more than the bigger production. This piece didn't entirely just play for laughs and I thought it worked better that way. Most of the time it was highly taut, suspenseful and the director keeps things running smoothly. They worked in the small slabs of humour rather well, by making certain aspects that are naturally funny, than actually trying to be so. Without the stupidity and goofiness of the feature length. The effects range from rubbery to computer generated, but it definitely isn't distracting, but adds a nice charm to it all. But hey at least its not overcooked with its effects, but it generates an uneasy feel, especially if you can't stand spiders. A mostly upbeat tempo within the score makes it move along and adds more to the atmosphere. That being shot in black and white contributed a lot too. The few performances are subtly good, but they aren't really given too much to do as the script reasonably sparse, with the main concentration on the mood it creates and gripping action pieces.
'Larger than Life' is a refreshing, brisk and well-executed short that might get under your skin.
