Romford Horror Festival: ’11pm’ Review

Stars: Tony Banham, Abigail Bush, Elodie Angel, Lewis Cook, Sophie Anna Bel, Laura Ollerton, Ollie Mullen, Miti Goneos, Stos Goneos | Written and Directed by JP Thomson

At only thirty minutes long this short film set in real-time builds up to that time of its title 11pm. Apparently, the time when most disappearances occur – one of the claims of the movie is this is because of the time pubs closed but I’m not sure that’s really a thing now. That said I like the idea of something building up to a set time when you know something will happen. It gives the movie a focus and a sense of tension from the off.

Unfortunately, 11pm (aka Never Be Alone At 11pm) never lives up to its ideas often coming across as some sort of experimental movie. We witness conversations over a bar with super close-ups of the people talking. The actual conversations I actually mildly interesting as the ‘characters’ talk about local legends but also just regular chat. If this was the start of a movie and we were learning about characters that we would be seeing lots more of, you’d be quite happy. But these little snippets alone don’t seem to go anywhere and therefore come across as almost pointless.

In between these bar chats we see black and white (the whole film is shot in black and white) shots of the streets presumably nearby. These are quite artsy-looking shots of empty streets and on their own look great. I understand the idea behind this, again in theory, this builds some tension – these empty, kind of creepy looking streets are there to be haunted. But the two things never really feel like they are properly connected and this is never shown on camera.

Maybe this could all be forgiven if the end scene or at the very least an end moment was dramatic, shocking or just plain scary but it is none of these. Unfortunately, this is at least in part due to budget restraints I’d say but that final moment doesn’t justify what came before it. There’s no great scene that makes up for everything else. This could be extended into a full feature given some thought and a bigger budget but as a short, it’s not one I can recommend.

11pm screens alongside feature Exit AND short The Witches Bargain in the 9.10pm slot on Saturday, 26 February 2022, as part of the Romford Horror Film Festival.