Film Review: Drawn to Fear (short film) (2016)

SYNOPSIS:

A woman has procured a rare book under strange circumstances. Little does she know that the book has a life of it’s own – drawing out the fears of those who possess it. She struggles to figure out the meaning of the book before it’s too late.

REVIEW:

Another short film, kiddies! Today we have DRAWN TO FEAR, written by 4 Leagues Media and directed by Daniel Robinette.

Our story follows Hope Desdemona (Courtney Lakin), who has just returned from an estate auction and won a box lot of….well, something from the event. She calls the friend on whose behalf she was bidding and lets them know they can come get the box at their earliest convenience.

However, Hope’s curiosity overwhelms her and decides to have a look at what’s so special about this particular box. She finds a book, apparently full of blank pages, and flips through it.

Suddenly there are noises at the window…at the door…down the hall. And Hope realizes with horror that the book is at the center of it all.

I hadn’t heard of 4 Leagues Media, so I looked them up. All their social media looks fairly new, nothing dating before 2014. It’s an cabal of four men – Daniel Robinette, Aaron Sorgius, Jeremy Tassone, and Jeff Cox – who are each balancing many hats upon their heads. There are not a whole lot of completed projects listed on their website.

As for this particular film, which is their newest film, just look at this list of accolades:

2016 Best Horror Short – “Drawn to Fear” – Motor City Nightmares International Film Festival
2016 Official Winner – “Drawn to Fear” – Hollywood Horror Fest of Shorts
2016 – Best Horror – “Drawn to Fear” – Apex Short Film & Music Festival

2016 Official Selections – “Drawn to Fear”
Lucky Th1rt3en Short Horror Film Competition (StokerCon) (Las Vegas, NV)
End of Days Film Festival (Orlando, FL)
World Horror Convention (Provo, UT)
Motor City Nightmares International Film Festival (Detroit, MI)
Apex Short Film & Music Festival (Rochester, MN)
TOFF (The Online Film Festival)
Hollywood Horror Fest of Shorts (Hollywood, CA)

That’s a lot of festivals giving love to what is basically a sophomore effort by a relatively new company. And it is well deserved. The production quality is really good. The story is told succinctly. The acting is on point. I really can’t come up with anything crappy to say about this film.

So using my special short scale of one to five, five being awesome, I’m giving this film 4 notebooks.