Film review
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Written by: Don Swanson | Directed by: Don Swanson | Genre: Horror | Length: 19 minutes
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As always, I'm completely determined not to give away any main plot points. For this film though, I don't think that will be a problem. Occurrence At Mills Creek is a ghost story. I'm pretty sure of that and I assume anyone reading this will put as much together from the title and trailer. But this was a really hard short film to follow. Really hard.
I'm under the assumption that this short film is actually some kind of hybrid version of a feature length movie planned to be filmed. Or the first act. I did get that feeling, but I also got the feeling of a purely conceptual film. Kind of. I'm not totally sure what I really felt after watching Swanson's film. It was all really a lot to take in. Like a snapshot from someones mind that is mentally ill. I understood a bunch of pieces individually, but the whole of the story I'm still not sure I completely understood. Knowing it's a prelude, or first act didn't help much. It only made me ask why bother releasing this as a short at all? If putting it out is a must, why not strip it down to the core elements and create some kind of fluid story. One thing Swanson did manage to achieve? An atmosphere. Occurrence At Mills Creek is creepy; even if you're not quite following why. 
The look of this short is one of Gothic horror. There's a contrast that dishes out equal parts drama and creepy. The blood effects near the end were pretty cool as well. If I was to write this and only write about the look and sound design, things would be different. But it's my ability as a viewer, to really understand what's happening onscreen, that makes a short film great. And the pieces are all here, but everything is so all over the place I just really didn't get it. And that's what really counts.
I really would love to see where this is all going. If I stumbled upon this film and just watched, it mostly looks really good. Even fantastic at some points. But looks alone don't make a good story. A good story makes a good story. I'm glad I was informed it was a first act, but even then, it felt like a million things going on at once and I was only getting about 10%. Visually creepy and a good score backing it, Occurrence At Mills Creek did manage to up my sense of dread. My anticipation. It just never delivered on that promise mainly, because It was hard to follow. Seeing the bigger picture? I would love to. There is definitely talent here, I just don't think the viewer should be required to be a detective to understand it all.
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