Mikes Film Talk

Spooky Madison (AKA Spencer “Spooky” Madison wrote and directed As i Believe the world to Be. It was specifically for a winter film festival. I have seen a few offerings for this Cincinnati film fest and this one is dark. It also raises some questions.

A lot of questions.

synopsis

Elnora (Bailey Kathryn) is seemingly created from the pencil of Piper. The writer is forming a storyline and has a protagonist with a dark core. In the slowly crafted tale, Elnora has a task to complete but gets distracted.

Jacob (Played by Timothy J Cox) is displeased with Elnora as she has not completed the job he gave her. She has been distracted by her target’s girlfriend.

Biblical

I may be completely off the track about this one. As i Believe the World to Be is a film full of imagery and what feel like biblical references. Elnora, is a very dark person. She appears to be an enforcer for Jacob, or at the very least, an enforcer/assassin for hire.

But what is she? Is she a fallen angel? Or something worse.

She and the other fallen angel both bear scars on their faces. Something that could be the mark of Cain. She clearly is not human. Gia even brings this up. Elnora kills for a living and the mark on her face could well be that aforementioned mark of Cain.

Discussion

As i Believe the World to Be places Elnora in the role of Bogeyman. When she enters the bar to take the thief out, other women, apart from Gia (Agia Smith), look rather perturbed, almost hostile in fact. When Elnora goes to the bar and gets a shot the barmaid’s hand shakes.

*Side note: The profile of Billy (Anthony Dain) is a spitting image of Robert Downy Jr when he was younger. Quite startling actually. Also kudos to this actor who rocks it in the small role he has as Jacob’s employee. While Cox himself never needs any help knocking a role out of the park, Dain fits in perfectly and enhances the scene. #nosmallparts

Questions

This short film is one of those that I can watch over and over. There are so many questions. Why can’t Jacob just fire the thief he hired? Why does Elnora have that scar on her face? Who is the other fallen angel? And just what are the two young women?

There is a hint of a dark supernatural chaotic theme going on here. As mentioned in the tagline, Elnora seeks out chaos.

conclusion

As i Believe the World to Be is a solid 3.5 film. It just missed getting 4 stars. Some of the dialogue was lost in the overall din of background noise. (Just inside the bar.) This was a cracker. Cinematographer Nick Huskey met the challenge of filming in tight places admirably.

The editing by Vincent E. Tricaso was spot on and Spooky Madison managed to make a mechanical pencil interesting. But most importantly, Madison placed a bit of humour into all of that pathos. A hard thing to do by any standard.

The Trailer

Watch the trailer and then head on over to YouTube and watch the film. You will not regret it.