Stop Taking Pictures: An Eerie Narrative That Leaves Its Audience Spooked

Written, Produced & Directed by Arlin Godwin, Stop Taking Pictures is a 14:33-minute long film that entwines occult, mystery and horror. When Aaron Hayes (Joseph Groth) loses Lilly Hayes (Lina Romero) to a freak metro accident, little does one know the deathly spiral her demise is to bring him under. A tight storyline that rarely digresses from its focal point–of psychology, perhaps even anomalistic psychology and the paranormal, the short is a must-watch for the aficionados of its genre.

The grayscale of the film’s chosen colour palette is a perfect adieu to its subject–one that can be looked into with skepticism. A lot of could-this-be , can-that-be , begins to play in the minds of the audiences as they remain hooked with the pacing of the film. For we are hardly given any clues about Lilly. We don’t know about their meet cute or what their marital life was like. Godwin does a very smart thing by letting us simply immerse ourselves in the spectacle that Hayes’s life turns into upon losing his partner. He turns to alcohol, prescription drugs, and even therapy, but amidst all this, we sense the horror that begins to loom around him and soon enough–within him.

The editing is crisp, and the choice of background score is befitting the film which is divided into chapters, the final leaving the audience wondering at the possibility of a sequel. Both Groth and Romero are convincing, in this largely dialogue-less film. It’s interesting because the characters don’t particularly share even a conversation. We are simply made to understand their relationship from the fragments left behind in the aftermath of the accident. It’s the subsequent descent of the one left alive, the slow mourning, grief and despair that he endures that lets us believe in the nature of their relationship.

When Hayes, a credited photographer in his own right, begins to lean to his camera for solace, his pictures start to tell another tale. The crime scene becomes his film, and the negatives soon begin to terrorise him. When the fine line between reality and his imagination becomes blurred, we begin to wonder whom to trust, if he is a reliable narrator of his own tale.

Such is the beauty of this genre, it leaves its audiences with the choice to pick their own version. Was he simply hallucinating in despair? Can there be an explanation that justifies the events of some people’s lives? Can an absolution ever be found in the realms of our own entwined existences? Who is to tell! Godwin brings a perfect balance between them all, leaving his audience in wonder, in suspension of disbelief and an eerie curiosity that perhaps only a sequel can satiate.

Highly recommended!

Watch Stop Taking Pictures Short Film