Garage

An insight into the mind of a troubled man as he attempts to confront the nightmares that were caused by a traumatic incident during his childhood.

A boy named Joshua (Braverman) is cycling home when a grown man (Collier) approaches him and asks him to join him in his garage, where they could play. After the child reluctantly agrees, the man snatches him. Forty years later and the now adult Joshua (Kaufman) is tormented by the memories from his devastating experience. After repeatedly returning to the garage where he encountered the fiend, one night he finally decides to drive there, determined to battle his demons once and for all.

This short is a powerful and dark psychological thriller that is based on the director's own experiences as a victim of childhood sexual abuse and it explores the effects of post-traumatic stress disorder. It reveals how an inhuman action can destroy a person's life, making their life unbearable. Time seems to be unable to heal Joshua's wounds and therapy appears to be leading nowhere. He believes that is up to him to overcome his trauma and that he can accomplish that by entering the place where he suffered, the garage.

The performances are great and Kaufman is dramatic and emotional as a person who went through a traumatic experience and has been suffering for decades as a result. He is emotionally unstable, hears voices from the past and imagines seeing himself at the same age that he was when the fateful incident occurred and he also hallucinates seeing the culprit. Braverman does a good job as an innocent child and Collier is convincing as the creepy and dangerous abductor.

The film utilises creative lighting techniques and the wonderful cinematography by Michael Nie provides a gloomy atmosphere. Jay Gruska makes an outstanding contribution with the score, which is tense and sinister and provides a frightening and pessimistic atmosphere.

This is a bleak but very well made short film that shows how PTSD affects people and raises awareness of that condition. The story is tragic and vividly exposes the tormented life of the protagonist. It will most likely leave the viewer with a thoughtful experience.