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Film: The Man Who Lives Under the Porch
Year: 2019
Director: Travis Vulture
Writer: Travis Vulture
Starring: Travis Vulture and Emma Lenar
Review:
This was a short that the actress, among other roles, in this film. She asked if I would be willing to check it out and give a review for it. As you all may know, I’m all about helping out independent artists in anyway that I can. This short runs just over 7 minutes long and quite minimal. The idea behind it is that we have this crazy person, played by Travis Vulture who also is the writer/director, has a woman trapped in a cage and they’re videoing him while we see how insane and depraved he is.
Now I have to say for this, I actually really dig how simple they went. My recap really gives the extent of what the short has, but it really is so much more about the performance of Vulture. In just their conversation, we learn that he is an escaped mental patient. He thinks that he is a variety of different professions and that he’s really just a few steps from just completely losing it. What makes this intriguing though is that it feels like an extreme gore film that ends right before all of the actual insanity happens.
I do think that the performances from both stars, Vulture and Emma Lenar, are good. We never get to see to Lenar as she is operating the camera. I will say that this is a bit of an odd choice to go found footage here. I’m not sure it works as well as it should, but I will give credit, it does give us that unnerving feeling of what is going to happen and there’s nothing we can do to prevent it. The only issue I have here, which comes from many found footage, is that why are we still filming?
We also get some interesting effects with the camera. The color inverts a couple of times and I’m not entirely sure why. It did make things creepier though so I will give it that. The problem that comes from this though is that we are losing a bit of the realism of what is happening. We also get another effect where it splits and mirrors the image. This did bother me one time if I’m going to be honest, because I wanted to see what Vulture was doing. I just don’t know if we necessarily needed these effects, but they’re still pretty cool in general.
I know I’ve touched on the performance by Vulture, but I have to give credit for the look of his character. I’m not entirely sure if they had a script or not, but man, he looks wild. His shirt is ripped up, he has blood on him and he actually cuts his hair during this as well. The look really adds to the performance of seeing someone who is insane. The last thing also would be the soundtrack was a solid choice as it fit how dark and dismal feel this setting is. It definitely added a good touch to the film for me.
Now with that said, this is a short that really showcases what these two filmmakers can do. I can’t say that it is great, but I think it is really good for what they were going for. It is low budget and I like that they did things that were within their capabilities. Vulture is a madman and I like how well he got into his character, Lenar is equally important in the supporting role to keep him going to show the depths of his madness as well. Found footage is a bit odd route to go here, especially in a couple of spots that we lose the realism, but not enough to really ruin anything if I’m honest. This is really a good showcase to see what they’re capable of and I would most definitely watch more of their work, as I can see some talent here for sure.
My Rating: 6.5 out of 10
If you want to check out this short, here is the link for it: