Beep (2010)

Director: Nicholas Militello
Stars: Matthew O'Brien, Ty Hoodekoff and Nicholas Militello

This film was an official selection at the 6th annual International Horror & Sci-Fi Film Festival in Tempe in 2010. Here's an index to my reviews of 2010 films.

An unnamed traveller arrives in town by plane and finds his way to a hotel. He ought to know what's to come given that he's played by Matthew O'Brien, who also wrote the script, but it seems to end up as a surprise anyway. His plane was late, his girlfriend talks to him on the phone and he has to be up again in three hours. Yet he's woken up by the beep of a smoke detector reporting on its lack of battery charge and when he follows the sound to investigate, we discover that he's never seen an episode of Dexter in his life. Trying to flesh out a full story in a mere six minutes is a challenging task, especially when you add in both opening and closing credits, but O'Brien does a fair job and director Nicholas Militello, who keeps the juiciest part for himself, brings it neatly to the screen. As you might expect for a six minute short, this is a one trick pony, but it's a decent trick, though we do wonder about the logistics of the whole affair.