Keep Out: A Thriller That Leaps Over Realism and Brushes Against Comedy

Mark Mohn’s Keep Out is a 9-minute thriller set within the boundaries of a solitary man’s home which, without much warning besides an insistent doorbell, becomes the site of friction when a door-to-door saleswoman accepts her fate: she must make a sale. Even if she is pitching to someone uninterested to the point of hostility.

There is really not much going on in the life of Tyler Bates (Marcus Alexander Ortiz), a first name and last name both previously held by exemplary men in the field of home-based violence—though bringing that up is putting the body before the basement. He lives alone, enjoys the TV in the middle of the day, and intermittently stares at the severe Keep Out sign on a door. You wonder why it’s not being put to good use on the outside of the front door. This is clearly not a man who likes visitors, even when they aren’t salespeople in need of their job, and would clearly appreciate low-effort efficiency in repelling them.

Karen (Sophia Colletti), who is initially as interested in selling as Tyler is in buying, commits to the part when her boss kindly makes her (this unseen character is certainly a pro at persuasion). And thus begins a back and forth that is by turns tense and comic. Like Pride and Prejudice, both characters make a claim on each label, if better suited to one more than the other.

There are a lot of POV shots in Keep Out—one of the few stylistic flourishes in a pared down, minimalist production—the discomfort of being around two unlikeable characters made explicit and inescapable. You will likely find these two dreary but not entirely unsympathetic, and with the morsels of humour, you might even enjoy their ridiculous jumps of logic and actions. And when the trick finally reveals itself, it really will be startling.

Watch Keep Out Short Film