Virus

     

A short thriller about the latest victim of a dangerous virus. Andrew is working late at the office when he receives an email from his girlfriend Amber. The email is blank but contains an attachment.  Andrew downloads the attachment, a quicktime movie shot from Amber’s web cam. He watches the shocking footage unaware that the same fate awaits him.

 

‘Computer viruses just got a little bit more worrying in this brief but effective supernatural thriller, which could do for email what the cult Japanese horror the ring did for video.’  [Wendy Ide, Dazed and Confused]

 

‘Slick, dark and wickedly creepy, this mini cyber-thriller is very cleverly assembled with an eye for the telling little detail, the filmmaker even crams in a few red herrings.  And when he clicks send at the end, it sends shivers down our spines.’ 

 

‘This simple horror film was marvellously executed.’

 

‘Simon Hynd remains mysterious, creating a mood of impending horror.   With sharpened editing skills, Hynd cuts his film to impose an atmosphere of unease, so that a computer screen contains evidence of something terrible and the quietness of the office feels threatening, as if absence of noise is an imitation of death.’  [iofilm]

 

Awards                        

Winner, best international short film, 5th i.p.i.f.m. Greece

Winner, palmare, best actor, festival du cinema de Bruxelles

Winner, best art direction, festival internacional de Barcelona

Highly commended, TCM classic shorts competition

Commended, best of British category, brief encounters

Shortlisted, best Scottish short film, Jim Poole award

Shortlisted, best European short film, Leuven Kort, Belgium

Shortlisted, best fiction, Scottish students on screen

Shortlisted, best cinematography, Scottish students on screen

Shortlisted, new Scottish filmmakers award 

 

Selected Festival Screenings

Edinburgh International film festival

London International film festival

Brief encounters short film festival, Bristol

Tribeca film festival, New York

Arcipelago, Rome

Frightfest, London

Atlantic film festival, Nova Scotia

5th int’l panorama of independent filmmakers, Greece

Flimmer film festival, Sweden

Can2003 short film festival, Leicester

Leuven Kort film festival, Belgium

X international short film festival, Italy

Tiburon international film festival, California

Viewfinders film festival, Nova Scotia

First look film festival, Boston

Fantastic film festival, Bradford

San Fransisco short film festival

DC shorts, Washington DC

Morbegno film festival, Italy 

Festival de cine internacional de Barcelona, Spain

Festival du cinema de Bruxelles, Belgium 

Court metrange festival, France 

 

Virus has been used as an educational tool in the UK, US and Canada.  The BFI is using the film in schools throughout the UK to promote visual literacy in 12 to 14 year olds.