Solstice Film Festival 2008

The most effective way to pull someone into a film of any kind is too include the family unit. This is especially true in the horror genre. I think for some of us our worst fears are losing the people we love the most, our family. So from Night of the Living Dead to Who Can Kill A Child? the thought of children or of family members being harmed is very hard for us to digest. Director Atilla Szasz has taken that primal fear and used it brilliantly in his short film Now You See Me, Now You Don't. In the beginning of the film we see a mother boiling pasta on the stove with her son haphazardly running about. Soon his father arrives home from work with a small silver box. Then something horrible happens to her child. He is somehow made invisible! Is this from something that his father has brought out from work? Or is something far more devastating happening here? Everything from the production, script, acting is all on point. I can't complain about anything Szasz has done with the film except some of the music. At points the music seems a little over powering and drowns out the actors performances. But other than a couple problems with the audio which could be just a bad sound mix on the copy I received this is a beautifully made short film. I must admit I don't have any kids but watching this family interact and the issues the film brings up are very powerful. This isn't a typical horror film with blood and gore but a subtle and deeply sad story about a family. It may at first even come off as a tad bit sci fi but get into the closing moments of the film and it will all become clear. I can't go into specifics about this short because the pay off is magnificent and to spoil it would be a disservice to the hard work that Atilla put into keeping it that way until the closing minutes. Now You See Me, Now You Don't is really one of the best short films I have seen. The production values are fantastic and he has an eye for cinema that is going to take him far. I am eagerly anticipating a full length feature film by Szasz which I am sure will find its way to this side of the globe very soon. Be sure to track this one down if you can, you won't regret it. - Luke Franklin