Hide Your Crazy is one of those fantastic horror shorts that make you wonder why you even watch features anymore. Irina Slepneva led the production with fully 24 other producers listed because of the Indiegogo campaign for the film.
The base idea here belongs to writer-director Austin Kase. He is a graduate of Yale. And he has a great track record as an independent writer-director.[1] He isn’t a psychotronic filmmaker. His work (as in Crazy) is much more thoughtful than that — even though it is often quirky. He peppers his films with little insights that you just don’t see much in film.
He also consistently gets excellent performances out of actors. That’s well on display here with the only two actors in the film, Amy-Helene Carlson and William Lawrence Toussaint (although they are clearly both pros).
The film also looks great. Making a suburban apartment look interesting is hard — especially in a horror film. Here, the apartment looks perfect for the story. A big part of that is the lighting by veteran cinematographer Chase Bowman, who is also the camera operator. Pate Sanders did a good job as the production designer making the apartment look real but attractive.
Veteran Tony Snegoff was the stunt coordinator, which was much needed. The fights look real! Finally, Santino Ferrese did the excellent special effects makeup.
You might call Hide Your Crazy a Romantic Comedy Horror film. It has all the elements of a standard rom-com: two people destined to be together who must overcome obstacles in order to secure their happiness. You see, they both have secrets. He has bipolar manic depressive disorder. And she is the daughter of a witch and a demon, and now she must consume pig’s blood or she turns into a monster. (More or less; it’s complicated.) Can these crazy kids get past their issues and find true love?!
The film is incredibly sweet. And it’s a testament to the power of horror. If it were a standard rom-com (especially as a feature), I’m not sure I could take it. But here I’m near tears of joy at the end. (Vomiting has never been so beautiful!)
So forget Anne Rice and The Twilight Saga and all those “sexy” monsters. I find all that stuff pretty banal. Hide Your Crazy shows you can have engaging romance, funny comedy, and scary horror — all in one package. I’m not sure it could be maintained for 80 minutes. But at 13 minutes? It couldn’t be better!
[1] I only found one other Austin Kase film online, which is well worth watching, To My Son. But I contacted Kase, and he shared unlisted links to Kvetch and Another Girl. The latter film shares a theme with Hide Your Crazy, but it isn’t horror. They are all really good and worth a watch!
Hide Your Crazy via IMDb under Fair Use.
