The Fifth (2007) User Reviews

Hilarious, great movie!

[sfmcclean · 10/10 · 13 May 2007]

Wonderfully inventive horror short. Saw this at Edinburgh's Dead By Dawn film festival where it won the audience award for best short of the week-end. Brilliant script, great acting, really funny.

Basically, it's about a serial killer who turn up to his weekly poker game where all of his buddies know about and just accept his 'job'. A new player at the game (the fifth player) represents the audience point of view/horror as the killer discusses the details of his dreary job as if they were everyday problems.

Got some real 'killer' lines in it. Definitely try and catch this one if you get the chance!

Its a DARK comedy

[remylebeau555 · 10/10 · 25 July 2010]

I loved it. Its a dark comedy. Its not for children or for the faint of heart. It doesn't get any darker. It definitely goes as far as you can go with a dark comedy. Definitely R rated. It was VERY funny. I don't want to give anything away, although anyone who looks up this short probably already saw it, but throughout most of the first half I didn't think they would take it all the way, but they did. I appreciate the risky path Ryan Levin took with this film, and personally, I would love to see more filmmakers taking imaginative risks like this one. Its violent, sadistic, dangerously edgy, & hilarious, but lets keep things in perspective, its a comedy, Enjoy it for what it is, A comical exaggeration of what a few guys would put up with to have a fifth.

Hateful and pointless

[Toledo_Ramada · 1/10 · 3 June 2007]

I would have given this a zero but the option isn't available. I saw this when I went to see a feature at the Brooklyn Film Festival--why they decided to foist this crap on an unsuspecting audience I have no idea. It was like a bad SNL skit that would have been tossed out after one rehearsal, but instead these guys went all the way with it....the thing is, it wasn't even funny--there was one line that was very funny, that opened you up to the possibility that, despite the amateurish acting, this might actually be a good short. What immediately followed was so gratuitously violent and misogynistic it literally turned my stomach. What's the point? Desensitized violence and shock value got old a long time ago, this is a filmmaker with nothing new to offer. What's his next film, sketch comedy about child molesting? I think the writer/director needs some urgent therapy.

Pushes it a little too far

[openeyes · 15 September 2007]

A friendly poker game has trouble finding and keeping a fifth player because one of the regulars is a serial killer who keeps letting his business get in the way of his pleasure. I saw this film last night at the DC Shorts Film Festival. For the most part, I found it fresh and quite amusing. My only problem was that I found the chit-chat about the killers' job more than sufficient. I didn't need to see him actually do it. It was a totally unneeded detour from satire to sadism and darkened the tone of the piece. Still, it managed to recover for a strong finish, but it would have been better if it hadn't pushed a little too far.