In writer/director Hunter Fortune’s Beyond the Pasture, it’s just a typical day on the farm. Irene (Jenessa Persons) heads to her barn to tend to her horse, Lucy, and knock out her other chores. While checking on Lucy, Irene hears a strange crashing sound in the upper loft. She heads into the darkness with her cellphone camera light in hand and sees that a croquet set has fallen over. Then, all of a sudden, the light shuts off.
As Irene heads down the ladder, she is greeted by her boyfriend Michael (John Persons), who is about to hit the road for his band’s gig in St. Paul. That means Irene will be alone for the weekend. That night, Irene heads outside to smoke a cigarette when she hears an animal screeching, only to find the next morning its carcass in the grass in front of the barn. She calls Michael, and he says she should set up a camera. While she’s watching the feed on her laptop, the camera outside falls over. She heads out to fix it and hears a voice yell, “I think I see you…” Irene freaks out.
“She heads out to fix it and hears a voice yell, ‘I think I see you…’”
Filmmaker Hunter Fortune shows that horror is less about what you see and more about what you don’t. He plays with the idea of being alone and becoming hypersensitive to the creaks and thumps in the night. Common sense tells us there’s nothing there, but…what if you’re wrong? What if you’re very wrong?
This is Hunter’s first short film, and he’s definitely playing around with creating maximum psychological impact with very little, without using CGI effects or expensive monster makeup. His storytelling is spot on, lulling us into the ordinary and mundane and then, little by little, introducing his terror. He accomplishes what film should do: draw emotions out of an audience…whether good or bad…and then hit us with that punchline.
By the time it’s over, Beyond the Pasture has tightened its grip with the lean and mean storytelling only young indie filmmakers can pull off. Hunter Fortune leaves you with the sense that whatever’s out there never needs to be seen…until it’s too late.
For more information, visit the Beyond the Pasture official website.
"…whatever’s out there never needs to be seen."
