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Sometimes we hurt the ones we love the most.

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Tales Of Darkened Light - Runaways
( 2017 )
Written by: Rick Masi   |   Directed By: Rick Masi   |   Genre: Thriller   |   Length: 18 minutes.

Short Film Review

  Relationships are a tough thing. We are all raised being told that a special person will come along, and we'll live happily ever after. What a crock. Meaningful relationships, especially after that "honeymoon" period has expired, take a lot of work for both parties. It's easy to fall in love. Not so easy to keep things going for years on end... or a lifetime. Especially when a tragic event occurs. That makes it even more difficult. Enter "Runaways" from writer, director Rick Masi. It's an episode in a series called "Tales Of Darkened Light" that from what I can tell, features normal-ish stories with a supernatural twist. The twist in this particular episode, reveals itself at the very end. Truth be told, it's not a terribly ground breaking twist, but enough to make sense of the events just before it's revealed. For myself? The real fun of this little adventure was witnessing the similar instances and arguments I, myself, have been mixed up in. With my wife of course. It's a funny thing to realize that many of the things you thought were "personal" individual arguments, are not really that personal at all. So common in fact, they've been put onto the small screen by a filmmaker. That's a scary thought. Especially when some lines of the arguments in this episode, were almost word for word what myself, or my wife has spoken. It's amusing and scary at the same time. Almost scarier than many horror flicks I've seen recently. For this alone, "Tales Of Darkened Light - Runaways" is worth a watch. Everything else is just the added bonus.
  Aside from being put to screen in black and white, a choice that makes no sense to me whatsoever - since this is not a period piece - the technical aspects of this episode are about average for a micro production. It sports a few instances, mainly during the outdoor sequences, of distracting wind noise changes in the audio. A lot of montage sequences and a large amount of heart. Not totally surprising, but the actual camera work is pretty decent. No overtly out of focus shots, and no severe cases of racoon eyes on the performers.
  The cast themselves also put their best feet forward, and deliver a pleasantly realistic portrayal of a loving couple going through some relationship difficulty. As I've hinted at above. The writing, although not original in concept, is quite good when it comes to the dialog. Allowing the performers to do their jobs nicely. All in all, this particular episode was better than a lot of micro films or series I've seen recently. Nothing wrong with that.
  The downside of this episode was in the post production I feel. It's a really long feeling eighteen minutes. Considering this title is not action based, there is a lot of exposition and a huge amount - for eighteen minutes - of montage sequences. "Runaways" feels like it was trying to achieve a certain length. So instead of trimming the fat from the production, it was extended.
  In the end, I did enjoy my time with this. It may not have been the next Oscar winner but it doesn't need to be. The relationship aspects of this episode easily make it one worth watching. Maybe a few of us saps can even learn a thing or two... about what not to do. The supernatural element was effective, but not completely haunting as I'm sure was the intention. No matter how you slice it however, this is a free show. One we can all enjoy this very moment if you want. Why not swing by and have a look. Maybe stumble into a few other episodes of this series, since you're already there. My personal opinion? This is a solid two and a half stars. Nothing wrong with that at all.

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