Pod

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Pod
Starring Lauren Ashley Carter, Dean Cates, Brian Morvant, Lary Fessenden
Directed by Mickey Keating
The Story:
Siblings Ed (Dean Cates), Lyla (Lauren Ashley Carter) and Martin (Brian Morvant) have buried their parents within the past year, and it's affected them in different ways.  Ed is a psychiatrist and a family man, Lyla is addicted to alcohol and drugs, and Martin was dishonorably discharged from the army and has suffered severe PTSD.

Ed gets a message from Martin, and he seems to be in trouble.  He and Lyla travel to Martin's desolate cabin in the woods to find him living in squalor, ranting about government experiments and saying he's got a pod in the basement, a creature that followed him to the cabin and attacked him and his dog.  Ed doesn't believe him, and Lyla is on the fence.  Things escalate quickly as the real truth comes out, and threatens the lives of the siblings.

The Synopsis:
There are certain things wrong with "Pod,"  but there are things that were done right.  First, the wrong: Lauren Ashley Carter's character of Lyla, who turns the film into an unintentional comedy as she runs around literally screaming all the time.  She's an annoying character who whines and complains about everything, and it became grating after the first scene with her.

Another issue with the film is the creature itself (because, let's face it, there really was a creature in the basement.  There wasn't really any surprise at that).  From the fleeting glances of it, it resembled more a mummy than an alien or whatever it was supposed to be.  It wasn't even frightening, just annoying.

Third is the music.  It seemed to be in the background the whole time, even when it wasn't warranted.  Sometimes it was so loud it drowned out the actors' voices, and you couldn't tell what they were saying without subtitles.  Not that it mattered, because most of their talking was arguing anyway.

Now for what the movie did right: it was short.  Like only an hour and eighteen minutes.  There wasn't a lot of filler or needless scenes, and it felt like a longer "X-Files" episode. That's about all that was right with the film.

The Summary:
If you want to see a short film where people are literally shrieking at each other and a monster on the side, this is the film for you.

The Score: D+

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