I love good ghost stories. I always have. In fact, I like them more than I do zombie movies. There I have said it. The reasons are many. One reason has to do with credible evidence supporting ghosts’ existence.
While you have to suspend reason to believe in the existence of those lumbering oafs that emerge from the dead in advanced states of decomposition that humans spend the better part of movies trying to kill–why waste time trying to kill the dead? They are already dead!– before they eat humans–ghosts emerge from an ethereal plane of a paranormal world beyond ours, make their presence known, and scare the beJesus out of us. While the living may struggle to eradicate a ghost, they cling to their stories like a lifeline to the afterlife. Few people want to have a zombie hang around, as zombie’s simply do not have any redeeming qualities. They are yucky!
That said, I was excited to hear that filmmaker Jeff Kapp had created a three and a half minute short horror concept film that dealt with the subject.
In this film, a mother played by Bobbi Jo Newman tucks her daughter her into bed, “as snug as a bug in a rug.” The child, Elizabeth, played by director Jeff Kapp’s own, Maddellyn Kapp, asks, “When is daddy coming home?” And comforting her plaintively, Mommy answers, “Sweetheart, we have been over this. Daddy is not coming home anymore.”
When Mommy gets up in the dead of night and finds that Elizabeth is not in bed, she starts to look for her. When Elizabeth appears in the hallway, Mommy asks, “Where were you?” Elizabeth answers, “I was with daddy.”
Produced by Shane Schanski, Patrick Harney, and Jeff Kapp, filmed by Justin Lundy, with additional photography by Eric Ozanich, audio by Jake Zaczander, and sound engineered by Jared DuBois, this is a Vigilant Entertainment production.
Short films when done well play for me like a joke well told. Timing and presentation are everything. When that short film is a horror story, it can deliver a punch to the gut and can shake your psyche as nothing else can. You are not bogged down by details before you get the payoff. This is the case with this “Good Night, You.”
After viewing this short, I had a question that Jeff answered:
Regarding, “Good Night, You” from the director
“Goodnight, You” fun fact #3
We shot this in one night! Around 4 hours total. This group of amazing individuals made this all happen with their hard work and dedication! Nothing makes me happier than being on set with these amazing peeps!
“Goodnight, You” fun fact #4
A handful of people have asked me how we pulled off the CGI of the jump scare. There was no CGI involved. In fact. We want to stay away from CGI as much as possible in our films and go heavily on practical effects.
The scare was done between safely removing Maddelyn from frame; then in editing, we did a slight speed ramp to make it seem more sudden and drastic.
Check out the film to see what we mean!
“Goodnight, You” fun fact #6
This short is a proof of concept for a full-length feature film we are moving closer towards! There’s SO much story left to share with you guys when it comes to this family and why these things are happening. Trust me, the ending is a nice twist that I have not seen done in films yet!
So please, if you’d like the chance to see the whole story played out just LIKE and SHARE for us. The more exposure we can get, the faster we can get the rest of the story to you guys!! Thanks, everyone for all the love and support!
I cannot wait for this feature film.