David F. Sandberg is widely known as the director of Shazam, the hilarious DCEU movie that deserves more love than it actually got at the global box office. However, before venturing into the world of comic book movies, Sandberg made a name for himself in the indie circuit, making inventive horror shorts, including the short that got cinephiles around the world talking, Lights Out. As we all know, Sandberg later expanded Lights Out into a full-length feature film. What’s interesting about Sandberg’s style of horror is the way he takes conventional horror tropes in completely fresh directions.
Lights Out, for example, plays out almost like an action movie; just replace guns with torch lights. And while I wasn’t a big fan of Annabelle: Creation, there was a creative wackiness about it that makes the film stand out among the pack.
Now, Sandberg, together with his longtime collaborator/wife Lotta Losten, has helmed another short film. Best part is, he did it during the Covid-19 pandemic, while under quarantine. Now, Shadowed (the title of the short), isn’t particularly groundbreaking or profound, but it sure as hell highlights the filmmaker’s imagination and his ability to deliver cool visual spookiness with limited resources. Sandberg has promised that he’ll explain how he made the film, on Twitter and I’m very much excited for it.
The Shazam director calls Shadowed a “sort of a companion piece to our short Lights Out” and recommends that we watch it in the dark and with our volume turned up. Check out the short film here:
