Writer/director Jody Dobson walks us through a man’s ombrophobia—umbrella in hand—in the short film Rain. Chris (Scott Willet) is dressed for work and ready to leave. Along the way, the news is reporting heavy rain, and something in him locks up. He curls up on the bathroom floor, paralyzed, while fragments of a memory push through: a boy screaming and a condemning voice. The rain isn’t just weather to Chris. It never has been.
Chris heads home and sits in his car as if he’s about to have a panic attack, then bolts inside when the downpour hits. His jacket hits the floor hard. The phone rings — his partner — and he tells her the rain just started, tells her not to come over. When he hangs up, he runs a bath and settles in. He soon slips into an altered reality — a younger version of himself (Eli Dagostino) and a mysterious woman (Deirdre Brennan). He is brought back to his young self in a boat on the lake and screams at him to get out.
“He is brought back to his young self in a boat on the lake and screams at him to get out.”
For filmmaker Jody Dobson, Rain is one of those films shot long ago. As Dobson recounts, the hard drive stopped working and all the footage was lost. Year after year, Dobson tried to recover the data until one day the drive finally mounted, restoring 90% of the footage. Persistence pays off, and what we have is a tight psychological thriller about one man’s fear of rain (ombrophobia). Rain takes us down the irreversible path of Chris’ psychological breakdown — the news of rain approaching, the replaying of trauma in his mind, and the voice that both condemns and comforts him. Dobson gives us a poor man’s thriller, using camera tricks and effects to bring home the terror.
I love the film-like quality of the images, the stylistic transitions, and the use of sound. Rain is a lesson in how short films can create an emotional impact through story, and a testament to never giving up and getting your film made — no matter how long it takes.
For screening information, visit the Rain official website.
"…Persistence pays off…"
