It may not be a horror, but short sci-fi film The Job (directed and co-written by Craig Railsback (Down and Out in Vampire Hills) was still something I wanted to check out due to its intriguing premise and subject matter of A.I.
Arriving for a job interview, Todd (LeJon - Down and Out in Vampire Hills, Garden Party Massacre) finds the place deserted. Hearing a noise coming from behind a closed door, Todd's curiosity gets the better of him, he investigates and finds a strange large wire laying on the ground. He decides to plug it in to see what it was connected to and unknowingly awakens an A.I construct (Dawna Lee Heising - Ballet of Blood, Samurai Cop 2: Deadly Vengeance). This construct begins to interview Todd, with the man getting increasingly antagonistic with how much the A.I seems to know about him.
Over the course of around fifteen minutes, The Job takes the viewer on a journey that became more moving than its beginning might attest to. The interview process is really an excuse for Todd and the A.I to interact, with the job offer itself falling to the wayside. There is a darkness to Todd's past that he is forced to confront via the actions of the seemingly all knowing A.I. This is represented on screen via brief and scattershot flashback images. His reflections and revelations are married with music that makes things seem more poignant than otherwise may be felt. I did feel the flashbacks were a little too abstract, I got the gist, but wasn't sure of the time frame, especially with the appearance of a later prop. The set was devoid of much detail, but this worked in the short's favour. The A.I was represented as a figure on an apparent screen, I felt Heising was perfect for this role, looked and acted the part. I liked LeJon's character also, though the recurring cheesy music he keeps listening to didn't really do anything for me.
The Job was an interesting idea for a short, but the core plot kind of fell by the wayside a bit for something a bit more metaphysical. Obviously not a horror, but as always, I did wish for a little more darkness here.
SCORE:
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