If you’ve been reading me for long, you know one of my constant refrains is that movies are too long. So I thought it was nice when I recently watched Remain Calm but I wanted more.
The film features three actors who would be the stars of any low-budget feature: Pauly Shore, Nick Swardson, and Doug Jones. And the whole thing looks great. That’s particularly interesting given that most of the principals behind the camera have relatively little experience with this kind of professional narrative filmmaking. But many have experience in other areas. The editor Jenna Socha, for example, has impressive credits as a story producer in TV. And the First Assistant Director, Micah Johnson, has a ton of experience in that critical role.
Jake Lewis directed it. He also co-wrote it with his brother Sam. They’ve only made a few short films but I expect that to change. (Of course, I’m often shocked that people don’t get the opportunities they should. So who knows? They do seem well-connected though.)
Remain Calm tells the story of two bored clerks (Shore and Swardson) at a 24-hour convenience store on US Route 50. But a federal agent (Jones) interrupts them. He is looking for a creature that recently escaped from a desert facility. It eats people who show signs of stress.
It’s about 14 minutes long. But it goes by very quickly. Too quickly, actually. But the production budget constrains the story. I would have been happy with another five minutes to the first two deaths. My reaction to each was that there was tension and humor to mine. But it’s clear there is nothing wrong with the pacing. In fact, it works just fine. And I’m sure the filmmakers knew what they were doing.
Check it out. It is well worth your time.
Other Shorts
There are a lot of great short films. Here are just a few (mostly horror) I’ve written about:
Remain Calm (2026) poster via IMDb under Fair use.