Two campers Sharon and Teddy are terrorized in the deep dark woods of the California wilderness by a cannibalistic knife-wielding madman. Teddy is killed but Sharon manages to escape. That same night their boyfriends, Steve and Charlie, take refuge in an old cave to protect themselves from the storm. There they meet the killer an old man wearing a beat up old baseball cap named John. He tells them the story of how he walked in on his unfaithful wife and her lover. He killed them both, and gathered his two children and ran off into the forest. Unfortunately, his kids got sick and they committed suicide. Since then, he has developed a taste for human flesh and will kill anybody who trespasses on his territory. The next morning, Charlie is drowned and prepared for the killer's breakfast. He then goes looking for Sharon, who has, unbeknown to him, teamed up with the ghosts of his two dead children. The maniac chases Sharon but just as he's about to kill her his ghost kids save her. He runs off into the wilderness to find the wounded Steve, who has broken his leg. Can Sharon save her boyfriend in time?
Generally these short fan films offer up a certain formula; introduce Jason, introduce victims, kill them. It's pretty rare that we have character development or even a viable plot other than putting the victims in situations where they can die fast and with the least amount of special effects.
ut this fan film is that it was forced to follow that formula by default-- being a short, but don't let that deter you. The Storm did a lot of things that other short fan films did not, or simply could not. First off, the thing that sticks out the most is the beautiful HD cinematography. Right off the bat you know that this film was made by professionals and not just fans with a DV camera. Steady shots, close ups with an actual depth of field that we generally get with 35mm cameras. All of that aside, this movie had me constantly saying 'whoa'! The director Joe Patnaud really rolled the dice with this short film and we see that within the first minute we see a flash of T&A.
I really dislike re-posting things like this from other blogs, however generally when I am do I am vague and link to the blog that I got the information from. At any rate, I really love this look that was indeed used in the film-- the entire film except for the ending, we just never saw the face. It's the concept that special effects guru Stan Winston made up as the face of Jason Voorhees in Friday The 13th Part III. At the end of the movie, when the ending on the DVD was shot they opted for something less monstrous.
It's up! Please check out DeadPit.com for the fan commentary for Friday The 13th Part V: A New Beginning that was going to be on the Deluxe Edition, but eventually rejected for unknown reasons. From what I hear it had some insight from some cast and crew members as well as horror and humor from the innovators of horror talk radio: Uncle Bill & The Creepy Kentuckian!