At only 18 minutes, the new short film Hidden Daylight doesn’t have time to meander or dawdle. It gets right to the heart of the matter and delivers terrific suspense and a decent twist of which full-length features would be jealous.  Ably directed by Adrienne Lovette and written by John Rice, with some nice atonal music work by Ariel Marx, Hidden Daylight stars John Rice (again) as a blind psychic who is consulted by a businessman (David Rey) whose wife has been abducted by the notorious psychopath Hacksaw Killer.

The psychic can “see” through the killer’s eyes (after touching one of the victim’s possessions) and describe the events so that the businessman can get clues and hints about his wife’s whereabouts that he wouldn’t have been able to obtain otherwise.  But all is not what it seems, and even though I figured out the twist a few minutes early, it’s still a decent elbow jab to your expectations and turns the whole situation upside down and shakes out its lunch money.

Lovette frames her shots beautifully and effortlessly, maintaining suspense and unease throughout Hidden Daylight‘s short running time. Static shots of rooms and over-the-shoulder viewpoints make us feel a bit like voyeurs and interlopers (or at least even more than an audience usually does, hehehe).

Hidden Daylight is currently making the rounds of film festivals, and it is definitely worth your time. I’m looking forward to seeing what Rice and Lovette have up their collective sleeves, because they are talents to keep an eye on! Check out the trailer below!