PRIME

Prime disarms audiences with an unsettling atmosphere created by its editing and cinematography to bring its great idea to life, resulting in a chilling short film that will leave your jaw on the floor from first time writer and director Meagan Coyle.

An idyllic farming collective in the countryside, a charming and benevolent leader, and a young woman searching for a place to belong after a personal tragedy, what could go wrong? It is a concept that is not unfamiliar to the horror genre, but first time writer and director Meagan Coyle makes it feel fresh and exciting in Prime. With the ideas of freshly sourced food, nature, respect for animals and vegetarianism, Coyle quickly creates a dreamlike existence for this group living in harmony with nature. But, Coyle begins to break down the picture perfect image of this collective, ramping up the tension as Claire begins to suspect there is something more sinister beneath the surface of this collective. Never wasting a second, Coyle ensures that the screenplay fully develops this collective, using the on screen images to tell audiences everything they need to know about this collective (giving some major Midsommar vibes with the group activities), before unleashing an unsettling truth on both Claire and the audience. From that point onwards, Coyle concludes the story with a heart pounding urgency, conjuring up a truly morbid and twisted conclusion to this story that makes it one effective short film that has immense potential as a feature length film.

With only sixteen minutes to tell its story and a lot of narrative development to convey in this time, Coyle uses the film’s technical aspects to help set the tone and atmosphere of the farming collective that Claire joins. Joshua Echevarria’s cinematography creates a dreamlike landscape with lots of warm coloured and nature focused shots in the first half, helping to create this idyllic utopia that Claire cannot wait to be a part of, drawing the audience into the world of the film. But as Claire spends more time at the farm, the cracks begin to show in this idyllic utopia. This is captured in reality-cracking elements of the visuals developed by the quick and creative editing from Mike O’Brien that builds the mounting paranoia within Claire as she begins to suspect something is off at the farm, as well as the reality breaking VFX moments as Claire reacts to her surroundings once she has discovered something is very wrong with this collective. With Yan Pavelchuk’s musical score and Ben Chesneau’s sound design working together to create both the harmony and terror within the film’s soundscape, everything comes together under Coyle’s direction to allow her vision to leave audiences stunned within a very short runtime.

The technical aspects and direction of the film keep the horror ever mounting, though it is the performances of Katie Mumford and Anita Durst that truly capture the essence of Coyle’s vision. Mumford brings a longingness to Claire as she quietly infuses Claire’s past trauma with her desire to join this collective and find acceptance, allowing her to develop a trust with Rhea and the rest of the collective. As Claire learns more about the collective, Mumford instills an element of distrust that is constantly at war with her trustingness, helping to make the film’s final moments more shocking as Claire severely underestimates Rhea. From the second she appears in the film, Durst brings a warmth and wisdom that quickly commands the attention of both Claire and the audience, setting the base to develop an effective cult leader in Rhea. As the story progresses, Durst slowly drops subtle and concerning hints in her performance, teasing her character’s more sinister ambitions of this collective, doing so with a genuine kindness that helps hide her ultimate goal. But when all is revealed in the film’s final minutes, Durst is every bit as chilling in the most formidable way imaginable which will have audiences talking about this short film long after the credits have rolled.

It is hard to believe that this is Meagan Coyle’s debut as a writer and director, previously only having worked as a makeup artist in the film industry, as her grasp on telling an effective story in a short amount of time does not feel like that of a first time director. Effectively creating an unsettling atmosphere to take a simple horror concept and ensuring that it truly shocks viewers by the time the credits begin rolling (and throughout them with that twisted dialogue that plays over top of them), Meagan Coyle has crafted a great short film in Prime that benefits from excellent cinematography and editing to fully realize the horrors of this seemingly idyllic farming collective.