8 Hours
“Never be a prisoner of your past. It was just a lesson, not a life sentence.”
What is already dark on the surface is surely something even darker beneath. There are stories left untold to conceal monsters of the past, not to relive wounds that beats through the soul, and to break free from memories that haunt over one’s shoulder. But there are some who lives freely with this darkness, that they made it a point to use this darkness to escape from the vile past they have been. And most of the time this darkness carries out negativity that slowly corrupts its environment and the people within.
The short film “8 hours” welcomed me into a fictional monstrous abusive household of Stephen’s uncle. Stephen a teenager, who was adopted by his uncle after his father died. He often receives verbally abusive indictments from his uncle which clearly exhibits that his uncle isn’t fond of him nor loving to his wife, as he visibly mistreats her as well. One morning, Stephen missed the alarms of his clock, his uncle decided to wake him up using the alarm clock that surely woke him up to the dark reality that clouds around his uncle. Will Stephen ever get out from his uncle’s wrath? I bet you already have an answer, but here’s a hint, what you’re probably thinking right now is wrong. This film’s twists and unlikely turnouts will surely shock you.
It was surprising to know that the director of this remarkably deep, emotionally packed, and heart and gut-wrenching short film was a young talent from Utah, Carson McKinnon who also started writing the story of this film when he was just fifteen years old and continued to develop it until he was seventeen years old. Another surprise was he made this film in just three days and with a pretty limited budget of $500. That is very cool and impressive if you ask me because there are young adults that are in the same age as he is who are still unsure of what they want to do in their life but obviously not this young man, with the caliber of execution and skills that he poured in making his short film 8 hours manifest that he is indeed one of Utah’s rising talent in the film industry.
But the main factor that moved me the most about this movie was its relevance against a very sensitive issue about abuse and traumatic experiences in the household, especially with children. It depicts a clear message of the outcome if these traumatizing events aren’t recognized or given the proper intervention, it might lead to serious mental health problems that can be detrimental to himself and the people around him.
I give my all-out applauses to the team of “8 hours” especially to director Carson McKinnon for taking the risk of making a film that speaks for a lot of people who are prisoners of their past and the monster they dwell. As well as, the twist of how most of the time stories became fabricated because of what people opt to believe. I give my two thumbs up to this film.
