Magazine Review Draft 2

With the ending of my film altered slightly, I now need to change the content in my magazine review because I wrote it before I'd decided on changing anything. I have already made a first draft of the review which can be seen here. Below is my second draft, I haven't changed many things because I am happy with most of it so far, I've just altered the end of the review so it makes sense with the end of my film.

'Stranger' Review: Short budget thriller grips audiences to the mystery created.

Films with low budgets and short durations are a common thing amongst young students either looking to break into the film industry world, or simply creating a piece for their classwork. In this case, Josh Coe's short film 'The Stranger' relates to his classwork. This modern story about a girl who spends all of her time online, hating and ignoring her Mother, and speaking to random people will be more relatable to a younger generation as the film adopts a more modern theme.

Heidi Cooke's character of Clare, the typical teenager who hates her family and locks herself in her room all night is portrayed very well, and young viewers may be able to see themselves in this particular character. Her mother who is never actually named is played by Mandy Coe, and is a character every parent will hope to never end up like. We see her very briefly throughout the film doing nothing but sitting around drinking what we assume is something alcoholic with a tin of opened biscuits in front of her. Her lack of care and love to her daughter is clear throughout and we can easily see the broken relationship these two have.

As the films goes on, Clare attaches herself to a boy she meets online going by the name of Tom. They soon arrange to meet up in a dark alley where we soon realise that Tom is either not who he has made Clare believe he is, or just a complete murderer. As soon as we see the dark alley, as an audience we begin to predict that whatever comes next is not going to be good. What we don't predict is that the person who stabs Clare isn't in fact Tom, or so it seems. The scene of Clare's dead body fades out to reveal her laptop receiving messages from Tom telling her he couldn't make it, so as a whole we are left wondering what is the truth.
Perhaps what stands out as the film comes to a close is the clear regret we see on Clare's Mum's face as she stands over her grave. Their broken relationship is even clearer to us now, and we feel mixed emotions of sympathy for her Mum with losing her daughter, but also anger that she neglected her so much.

Reflective Comment:
Changing the ending to my magazine review was something I needed to do in order for my new scenes of my film to make sense. My next step is to add a third draft for my film with these new scenes included, and then this new draft will make sense with the plot.