Rogue Cinema - All Because of You (2007)

All Because of You (2007) - By Duane L. Martin
Posted on Tuesday, January 01 @ Mountain Standard Time by Duane

All Because of You is a short film from director Gary Lynch about three girls, two of whom get themselves involved in meeting guys on the internet, which leads to both of them unknowingly getting to know a demented serial killer. Things, as you can guess, go downhill from there.

Now as someone who actually met their wife on the internet and has been married to her for over ten years now, I do get a little tired of the cliche that it's dangerous to meet people over the internet. However, because this film had a nice little twist to it that actually made it a cleverly conceived story, I can forgive it this time.

The film itself is a short, and should have been. Kudos to Mr. Lynch for not trying to stretch it out into something it didn't need to be. I can see where a lot of film makers could have fallen into the trap of trying to stretch this out and make it feature length. Honestly, stretching this film out would have ruined it completely. It's just the right length, well edited, and the story is told clearly and concisely with an unexpected twist that I don't want to reveal here.

I wish more films were like this one. I see so many films that should have been shorts that stretch themselves out needlessly with pointless story elements and even more pointless segments of footage that amount to nothing more than filler. I do have one problem with this film, and while it's a pretty major one, it's not really horrifically bad.

The problem is, when the killer was holding the last girl, and he was explaining the whole thing, much as the bad guys do at the end of episodes of Scooby Doo, the girl was making all kinds of noise, and you have a hard time hearing what the guy is saying because of all the noise she's making. I'm not sure if this could have been corrected in the sound recording, the mixing or if it was just a directorial issue where Mr. Lynch should have told him to speak up and her to not make so much noise, but it was the one thing that stood out to me as something that wasn't so great in an otherwise great film.

The acting in the film was good, and the serial killer looked like just your average white, middle class, non-threatening guy. It's obvious from the beginning what's going to happen, but the twist that makes it interesting is in the "why".

If you get a chance to see All Because of You at a film festival or elsewhere, be sure to check it out. It's a really well done film with a nicely executed story and definitely worth your time.

If you'd like to find out more about Gary Lynch's work, you can check out his public journal at http://journals.aol.com/gl001/GARYLYNCHPRODUCTIONS.