Anxiety Acres

ANXIETY ACRES is part 1 of the 2-part Idville Collection brought to you by Julie Keck and Jessica King of King is A Fink Productions. The short film starring Mike Ayres and Heather Rush plays somewhat like a suburban “Scrubs” episode inasmuch as the story is narrated, and one of the main characters is prone to wild fantasies that constantly interrupt his otherwise ideal life. Mike’s character Kevin has issues that prompt his wife Casey to move them from their bustling city life to a more remote and relaxed country setting. Casey has a fascination with the macabre which drives Kevin to have wild fantasies about monsters in the closet, things that go bump in the night, and in this particular case, a drifter coming into their home and murdering his wife while he’s away.

The concept for this film is great and could certainly be carried into a full-length feature. Mike and Heather play endearing characters and have a great chemistry together. The transitions between real world and Kevin’s dream world are smooth and work well. The film is a bit grainy, but I’m under the assumption that it was filmed with standard definition DV, and the film itself was done on a fairly low budget. The only other comment regarding the production quality of this film is that the narration sounds a little too “on top” of the movie rather than feeling integrated with it. It’s certainly good for a quick (14 minutes total run time) of comedy.