Andrew Short and Veronica Orciari’s short film, Satoru, asks a simple question. Just because you can do something doesn’t mean you should. There’s always a price to pay, and you can’t afford it.
Emma (Kara Pearl) is pregnant, and her husband, Jacob (Andre Frey), is in the kitchen preparing a dinner party for their close friend, Stephanie (Sarah Lambie). It was supposed to be a chill supper, but the timing couldn’t be worse. It’s the anniversary of Stephanie’s daughter’s disappearance, and Emma’s pregnancy is the last thing Stephanie needs as a reminder of what she once had. The conversation is awkward at first, and tensions begin to boil.
Jacob tries to steer the conversation in a different direction…a weird direction. He brings up Satoru. It’s an urban legend, but Jacob insists it’s real. Find a payphone at midnight, dial a wrong number, and say “Messenger, Messenger, come to me.” Once it answers, you can ask it anything, and it will tell you the truth. The catch is that there’s always a catch. That’s enough to send Stephanie searching the net and discovering a website that lays it all out… but with a warning: you may be happy with the answer, or you may not.
“Find a payphone at midnight, dial a wrong number, and say “Messenger, Messenger, come to me.””
Satoru is built on real internet lore. It’s a Japanese urban legend known as Satoru-kun, about a spirit that can be summoned through a payphone ritual. The legend has circulated for years as one of those stories passed around message boards and horror forums, and here we are.
The first two acts of the short effectively build the need within Stephanie to accept this unholy offer. It’s not enough to just do it to find out what happened to her daughter; Satoru is all about Stephanie making the wrong choice because it is her only choice. Along with a poignant performance by Sarah Lambie as Stephanie, filmmakers Andrew Short and Veronica Orciari use the camera, aided by a haunting soundtrack, to keep her off-balance. It’s as much about the feelings the film evokes as the actual supernatural plot. Best to watch this in the dark. Satoru is perfect for your festival midnight block.
For screening information, visit the Satoru official website.
"…There's always a price to pay...you can't afford it."
