LOGLINE
A girl, a monster, five minutes - no looking!
SYNOPSIS
THE VICTIM is a teenage girl who visits a friend late at night. As she enters the empty house she finds herself involved in a survival game in which she has to endure five minutes with a monster she must not look at. The only information about the monster is held in several childish-looking drawings that she finds along the way, which also bare the only clue to her survival. After a turbulent escape, she manages to survive. But, when the alarm clock finally rings at the end of the game, she's in for a big surprise.
THE CHARACTER-THE ACTRESS
The Victim is a young teenager who appears as a cute, stylish girl, impatient to jump out of adolescence. She is sceptical when signs of danger arise and tries to find rational explanations for what is happening around her. Yet, she is still connected to children’s irrational fears and, in this movie, progressively regresses to the stage of childhood, exposing her young age by the way she eventually succumbs to such fears and to the rules of the game.
Simone Mumford is a 19-year-old actress, dancer, singer and model of British and Russian origins. She is based in London, where she attended entirely performing arts-based secondary schools including Sylvia Young Theatre School and Arts Educational School.
Since an early age, acting has always played a significant role in Simone’s life. Although she is primarily a theatre actress (‘The women of Troy' and ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ as Titania), she appeared in several short films including the most recent horror picture ‘The Game of the Clock’ by the upcoming director Michele Olivieri.
A WORD FROM THE DIRECTOR
Childhood is connoted by irrational beliefs that oppose the reasoning of adulthood.
The Victim of ‘The Game of the Clock, like any teen, is the embodiment of such opposing forces since she is both clinging onto her childhood yet projected into adulthood.
As children, we inherit one of the most atavistic fears of humankind – the fear of the unknown. The concept of the unknown is especially scary because it is unexplored, untouched, unfathomable and lends itself to wild projections. In fact, what we really fear about the unknown, is not so much what we don't know about it, but what we project into it.
The Game of the Clock plays with these ideas since the Victim is chased by a monster she is not allowed to look at while being forced to play a game (which is something childish by definition). As the film progresses, she journeys from the scepticism of adulthood to a more emotional, irrational state, in which she actually believes the game and even fears for her life, experiencing powerlessness typical of a child confronted with too big a challenge.
***WATCH A SHORT VIDEO ESSAY ON THE SYMBOLISM OF THE FILM BY DIRECTOR MICHELE OLIVIERI***
