A young girl finds a pencil that brings her drawings out in to the real world . Where have I seen that before ? Off the top of my head in the 1988 British ghost story PAPERHOUSE which was very boring and in the 2006 DOCTOR WHO story Fear Her which if not being the worst episode ever to have appeared since the show's return in 2005 is universally derided as the most boring one , one that felt like it was written on the back of a small notebook and then padded out to 45 minutes of yawn inducing television I can vouch that Christian Simmons has made a short film that is not boring in anyway shape or form . I thought he'd have a near impossible task of frightening me since the previous short I saw was the Italian animated short METACHAOS which was like dipping your toe in to Hell itself but PENCIL FACE managed to creep me out even more . A young teenager finds a giant pencil that has a face on it and if you find clowns scary you'll find this face rabidly traumatic . Simmons manages to bring a crushingly oppressive atmosphere to the film by using something so simple - the musical soundtrack which is eerie and repetitive and yet works superbly . It's impressive the way a director can do so much with so little and I'm more than a little surprised he hasn't been given more projects to work on . I don't want to overstate the case and say we might be looking at the next Darren Aronofsky but this is excellent spinechilling short movie with a lot of impact

A young girl is playing on some waste ground when she finds a pencil with a face. Whatever she draws with the pencil becomes real. Just an ordinary day.The word you're looking for is "unsettling". This is the word that the film aims squarely at and it is a state that it more or less achieves. The story is a simple one and, although the specific details remain to be seen, we know that this will end badly for the girl. We know this because the film very much plays to the genre of b-movie horror such as Chucky or the like. The face on the pencil is frozen into a permanent grin and has the sort of look on its face that to a child may not bother them, but to an adult it only looks creepy and wrong. This is played out under a score which only suggests creepiness and horror; OK it repeats too much for too long as a score, but it works for this.So the film works well as a reference to b-grade horrors because it gets the aesthetics mostly right and it is shot with a detached emptiness which could almost be a fashion shoot because Logan Link looks very much a model with her slightly awkward look and long thin frame (edit: just after posting this I decided to Google and yes, Link is indeed a model). The film doesn't really do much beyond this odd creeping horror feel. Others have tried to make the film be a comment on pedophiles or related topics, but this is a stretch and one the film itself never makes. Enjoy it for what it does well and it is good enough to carry the short run time even if it does have some flaws with repetition and lack of a slightly stronger ending.

Most horrors and thrillers nowadays are just full-blown 'cliches' with both - predictable plot and what I call 'atmosphere spoilers'. Actually very few have something to spoil in the first place. Exceptions are really hard to find.I would divide their weaknesses into 3 groups: 1. Constrained humorous (?) dialogs in the least appropriate moments. 2. Predictable. 3. (The most important) Lacking the ability to mirror even a fraction of basic human behaviors in the face of death. Or worse fear for that matter... (related to point 1). Three people are facing dangerous creature in the forest/basements. What is usually their brilliant idea? Oh, yes - 'Let's split.' A character being hunted by something is walking alone in the dark... backwards. A man facing a despicable horror is not stunned nor paralyzed a bit and he is able to freely say 'Oh, s*' with an expression more appropriate for crying after a failed exam. On top of that a music track more appropriate for Benny Hill chase scene. You get the idea. Now, Pencil Face can't be an example of all of the above not happening because there's simply no darkness (per se) and no dumb teenagers. But it represents a certain BRAND of movies. A BRAND that you feel wouldn't allow any of the above happen if it had been a cinematic movie. A brand that guarantees an atmospheric, unreal and intelligent experience. If you ever see a movie poster with a 'From the creators of Pencil Face' and the ticket price is $50 don't hesitate - go see it!Of course the brand itself it's not enough. Coming up with a story like that required a great deal of imagination for sure. Maybe even a slightly distorted but brilliant mind, who knows :) When I was watching it I had a feeling that I see someone's dream. That is strengthen by a certain... Just don't miss it and it might be that this short film will be a start of your search for a completely new...something.

Pencil Face is a little over three minutes long. In it, a young girl is playing outside and encounters a giant pencil with a face. No words are spoken; somehow, the girl intuits how to use the magic pencil. She picks it up to draw an outline of a cake, which then becomes real. She doesn't actually draw on anything. She just picks the pencil up and lines appear in the air. She then draws a kite, which also becomes real and we see her play with it for a moment. A repetitive musical cue plays over and over, creating a foreboding atmosphere. The camera lingers on the strange, smiling face of the giant pencil. You get the feeling something is going to go wrong. For her third attempt, the girl tries to draw a giant lollipop. However, what appears looks like a giant black funnel. It makes an odd noise, like the head of a timpani drum. She steps towards it, and is sucked in. The last thing we see is the smiling face of the pencil. I'm not sure if the filmmakers did this more as exercise to practice using special effects, or if they just wanted to make something weird and unusual. Some people will probably carry the image of that distorted pencil smile long after watching. It might be more appropriately be categorized as horror, rather than drama.