Movie Review: 72 Hours (2016)

72 Hours (2016) - USA - Horror - Not Rated (PG)

Independent Short Subject - Destination Desolation Productions - 9 Mins

Written & Directed by Andrea Dean Van Scoyoc (as Andrea Van Scoyoc)

Starring Andrea Dean Van Scoyoc (as Andrea Van Scoyoc)

A found footage film smartly uses vanguard conveyance of the author's narrative of a lone survivor and succeeds very well.

Many of us have seen, may even have, 72 hour survival kits; as a pre-packaged kit or customized. But what happens after that first 72 hours, like in the event of a zombie apocalypse? Are you prepared for the end of the world as you know it? Can you be? With 9 minutes of power left on her phone, a lone survivor shares her thoughts.

From pen and paper to the typewriter, various forms of audio recorders, film and digital video cameras to smartphones, varied are the technologies from antiquated to avant-garde but shared in common among all of them is the narrative, and therefore what that narrative conveys regardless of the means of transmutation.

Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, H. G. Wells and H. P. Lovecraft are among the progenitors of the survival narrative. Telling a story through journal entries or directed first person narrative was formalized in its art form in printed text, moved on to radio with a prime example being Orson Wells' production of War of the Worlds, and advanced into a visual medium with film and eventually digital video. But really, would someone reach for a typewriter (shaddup) or a video camera in their final moments?

The smartphone has become almost an extension of our hands. We break down on the road; smartphone to the rescue. We need to search an item to see if a local store carries it; smartphone to the rescue. We see an index card on the bulletin board at the laundromat that says "for a good time call"; uhm... wait... forget that one ..ahem.

Andrea Van Scoyoc has married these two premises of the sole survivor and the natural extension of the smartphone. She portrays a survivor hunkered down in a room in her home as the chaos still takes place outside. Just her and her thoughts, for what little time she has left on the battery of her smartphone. And her thoughts on this do paint a vivid picture for the viewer to follow.

I have not done a review of a smartphone movie before. The vertical format is obviously different than what I'm used to. And that's an important distinction in art, is not to be confined by limitations but to express oneself in different ways, and Andy succeeds in this very well and the vertical format makes sense. And where do I go in rating this? Actually I approached this from a different direction, starting with my highest rating and asking myself if there is anything that detracts from that rating. And the answer is no.

My Rating: 5 Fingers, I give it a high five!

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