Going back to the Chiller well, we find another little title called Glitch.   Weighing in at a particularly chunky eight minutes (which is pretty big by short online video standards), it’s all about a “mysterious cellular phenomenon” that renders people insane when they answer their phones.

This was the one to win the 2007 Chiller Dare 2 Direct contest.  But if this sounds familiar to you, it’s likely because it is.  Stephen King did it with his book Cell, and a movie called The Signal also took a stab at it.

I’ll hand it to Glitch right off–it’s pretty well put together, and the concept is sound enough if derivative.  The performances are great for amateurs, and the whole thing is actually pretty scary due to an extra note of plausibility.  There are down sides, however–for instance, I don’t know who taught these schmucks to film at night, but there’s large sections of the footage that’s almost unwatchable because you just plain can’t see anything.  I understand the idea of filming at night for extra scary factor, but come ON.  If you can’t see anything, then what’s so scary about it?

Still though–I’ll give Glitch a lot of credit for effort and chalk up most of the down sides to sheer lack of budget.  What’s here is pretty scary in its way, and that goes a long way for amateur short film.