Sudden Reality Review from Incisive Pictures!

Succubus [suhk-yuh-buh s]: A demon in female form, said to have sexual intercourse with men in their sleep.

I love a good short movie once in a while. So long as it isn’t ridiculous and taken for a joke, or one of those when way too much is crammed like sardines in a tin (or bloated corpses in a phone box) style into a slim running time.

Sudden Reality is the film child of Matthan Harris (German Angst, The Inflicted) who I contacted on social media originally to simply bag an interview (read interview with Matthan Harris here). I noticed he had a decent CV under his name and we spoke about a short flick titled, Sudden Reality. I had to review it! What I like about this one is the fact it’s simple and creepy. It doesn’t overstay its welcome, it doesn’t try and do your head in with too many twisted logics, and it doesn’t stare at you simply wanting a shock reaction. Sudden Reality is a nice quick tale which reminds me of late night Channel 4 shorts in the UK back in the 1990s.

Josh (Matthan Harris) is a high school lad who is haunted by his failure to approach the girl he fancies like hell, and some eerie wet dreams. For instance, whilst walking with his best buddy, Kevin, he sees Sandra and has a flashback or fantasy about her riding him. Kevin snaps him out of it and tells him how she is seeing a frat guy. “Dude, you don’t want to mess with those guys!” Josh stares onwards and imagines himself into the body of Sandra’s fella. In his mind he charges across and knocks out her reality boyfriend who is now where Josh is standing, in his dream world because he’s staring at her. “That’s for staring at my girl, you cock sucker!”

“Hello,” states Kevin, “I’m not staring at your girl. You don’t have a girl.” This brings Josh back to reality. It turns out this obsession with Sandra has been in action for quite some time. Kevin tells him he needs to let it go.

That night he creepily burns a rather large collection of photographs he has amassed of this girl he desires. The next day he tells Kevin he’s ready to move on with another conquest. Then who comes along? Oh yeah, it is Sandra. She catches Josh staring. He becomes a zombie. You know how it is. At one point they accidentally hold hands and she seems a bit creeped out.

His dreams become more violent. In them he is making love to Sandra, but being torn at and bitten. A demon with Sandra’s face. When he wakes he curses her: “Get the fuck out of my head, Sandra!” His life becomes a bit more complicated when he discovers she has finished with Frat lad and he sees Kevin giving her a cheeky kiss outside the High School. In Josh’s unstable mind, he goes Trench Coat Mafia and shoots Kevin, then lowers the barrel of his rifle to Sandra’s face as she kneels. “Suck it, you bitch!”

She turns up at their apartment. Josh visibly begins to crumble, his nerves are snapping. The man is on the edge and teetering on a wide open void. It’s unfortunate for a scared Sandra when Josh’s head mixes his dreams into reality. It has tragic results. A flipped out Josh has a body to hide and Kevin returns home.

“She was a demon, Kevin! You didn’t see what I saw!”

This wouldn’t be out of place in an anthology following the collapse of the human mind in varied stories. Matthan Harris, who played the deaf and mute Polish victim of Neo-Nazi violence in German Angst (see my review here) for which there is a product placement poster in this film, shows his diverse talents here. In the before mentioned anthology, his character was very sympathetic and he did that by his expressions — you felt deeply for Jacek and his girl as the beat downs went on and on. In this, he is a purely different personality and, for anyone who has never had the courage at one point in their life to approach ‘that’ person, he transfers his feelings out of the screen. As a director and co-writer, he doesn’t go for snappy edits or, as I said before, twists and bullshit, it’s simple and accompanied by atmospheric music practically throughout, which all makes excellent bed fellows. Support from co-script writer, Sarah Kate Allsup as Sandra, and Jacob McGregor carries the tale on steadily.

The effects aren’t too over-the-top, there is some brief gore, rotting face, demon set up, all good and aren’t there as the centre point to Sudden Reality. Big respect goes to Patrick Cupp who is still new to the game, having done FX work only a small handful of films, and a bit of work in the Mark Wahlberg vehicle, Contraband.

Sudden Reality is recommended as a quickie late at night. Also worth seeking out is, The Inflicted, where the gang chipped in to make a full movie which added cameo’s for Bill Moseley, Doug Bradley, Sid Haig (no big deal, he’s everywhere that one) and Giovanni Lombardo Radice. Yep, I might review that one soon.

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Sudden Reality Review from Incisive Pictures!

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