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If you’re not into the world of short films, you’re seriously missing out. It’s full of fresh, new ideas from creators in every genre, especially horror, and it’s often a breeding ground for new names to get their foot in the door, with streamers like Hulu often drawing from the scene to adapt shorts into full-length features. Some even (and often) go viral, including a recent one from co-writers and directors Luke Barnett and Tanner Thomason: The Crossing Over Express.
Debuting on Short of the Week, the film is led by character actress Dot-Marie Jones — known for her work in shows like Killing It and Glee — as a mysterious “doctor” who can supposedly raise the dead, but only for two minutes. She’s giving serious Doctor Faustus vibes, somewhere between Victor Frankenstein and Herbert West, minus the big glasses and/or screaming at the heavens. (I probably wouldn’t put it past Herbert to raise the dead in the back of a moving van though, to be fair.)
As she runs her “clinic” out of the moving van, she’s visited by Hank, played by Barnett, a man looking to have some time with his deceased mother, who he misses dearly. All he’s told is that he’ll have two minutes, and whatever he does, not to touch the sheet inside the trailer. But does he actually see her, and does he get anything out of it? Well, that would be telling.
The Crossing Over Express garnered over 500,000 views on Twitter in its first seventy-two hours — not too shabby for an eleven-minute short. Even more so, it must be cathartic for its creators, as it was inspired by a moment in Barnett’s young adulthood, where he had a chance to reflect on his own grief after losing his mother at seventeen, as he tells it:
My mom passed away when I was 17. I only have a handful of pictures and zero videos of her. A couple years ago, on my birthday, I got a text from a number I didn’t recognize. It simply said “happy birthday” and had a YouTube link. I clicked it and my heart stopped. It was my mom. I had to pull over immediately. She was telling me how proud she was of me and how she wondered what I’d become. Maybe a policeman, a preacher, or even a clown. I couldn’t believe it. Well, it turns out the random phone number was my friend Jon’s dad, who had found this video on an old VHS tape they made before a 1999 school event. I was 16. This experience got me thinking…what if we could have one last conversation with someone we lost? I called my writing partner Tanner the next day. This short film, in a way, is that conversation.
“There is a point in adulthood where you can not help but to become familiar with loss and the feeling of giving anything for one more phone call, or hug, or just to see the face of someone you loved so much,” Thomason agrees. “It’s universal and the idea of a character going through the rush of emotions such an experience would cause is extremely compelling; even more so when it’s inspired by a real moment experienced by one of your closest friends and creative partners.”
After an impressive festival run, The Crossing Over Express is available to watch for free now. Check out the full short below:
