Patrick Rea and SenoReality Pictures are quickly becoming the "short" stick by which to measure all others. In the past couple of years, their efforts have grabbed the attention of the horror festival circuit with their brief and easy to interpret twists of fate shorts that are worthy of television serial status - only the market for them does not yet exist. Fangoria TV, and just this month Heartland Horrors from horrorchannel.com, have put a fetal launch to the horror channel we've waited for all our lives, and with its low budget platform comes an awesome opportunity for the horror short to be thrust into the spotlight. 2007 looks to be the year that the horror internet broadcast solidifies, perhaps paving the way to a bigger and better production in the near future.
Playing this month over at Heartland Horrors, this past month on Fangoria TV, and at this weekend's San Jose Fango Fest, SenoReality and director Patrick Rea have grabbed the short spotlight. Their concentration on the horror "segment" has a polished, professional product being pumped out almost monthly now. Most recently with Woman's Intuition (review), The Thing About Bannon's Lookout (review), Emergency Preparedness, and Copy. With the initial two having instigated rave reviews and strong word of mouth, lets take a look at the latest two shorts to hit the festivals and internet stations.
Emergency Preparedness
The tin tension of a radio broadcast has a tendency to fray nerves, for whatever reason. As in Night of the Living Dead, Orson Wells's surprise radio broadcast of War of the Worlds, or even the real life tragedy of the Hindenburg. Well, take one schitzophrenic maniac on Halloween listening to the Lawrence Radio Players do a horror show, take away meds, add stress, and throw in some poor sucker who decided to come by and scare him with a mask, and you have the 7 minute psychological thriller known as Emergency Preparedness. SenoReality, director Patrick Rea and crew, keep up the quality short tradition by kicking it up a notch, adding special effects, which include blood, an arrow in the mouth, hand stabbings, and a shotgun through the gut. John Wilson (Empty Acre) stars. Much more suited for the horror genre that has been getting to know Rea over the past couple of years through the horror film festival circuit.
Copy
In creative writing class back in high school, we used to be given a noun from the dictionary and pretty much have to write a three page story on it each week. Be it a house, a car, or in this case, a copy machine. Take the atypical job interview with a nervous and desperate applicant, a wary employer (hottie Jennifer Plas) who gets a death prediction from her xerox, sprinkle in the tension and final twist of your average SenoReality production and you have Copy. You can go into this, as I did, wondering and anticipating what the turn-out will be - knowing Patrick Rea, you know you're in for an unexpected turn of fate, but as he is so good at doing, you can't guess what will happen, and youre smiling that "...genius" smirk at the end. Its short, to the point and highly recommended.
With these shorts playing both major horror broadcast sites and 30 second IDs being produced for Fango TV as well, SenoReality's work mastering the genre short is paying off, as they seem to be the most prepared studio to enter the web tv short telecast fray. Emergency Preparedness and Zero the Counter both played at Fangoria's Weekend of Horrors in San Jose this weekend. The Thing About Bannon's Lookout is also available to watch right now at www.horrorchannel.com - stop on over and check it out just for a looksee. Looking forward to more more more from Kansas' own SenoReality Pictures. For more information on the works of Patrick Rea, Ryan Jones and the rest of this extremely talented crew, head on over to www.senoreality.com
