Sometimes, a film is clearly derivative of the work of others. You watch it and you just think to yourself, “God, didn’t you have any original ideas?” But this is definitely not the case with Donal O’Keefe’s new short Dead Ahead, which chooses not to try and emulate certain horror titles but instead fully embrace them and make their influence 100% clear and apparent!
The 1.5 minute short is absolutely delightful and constructed in such a way so as to make spotting references theoretically very easy. What happens is a car is traveling down a country highway but the world they are driving on expands one tile at a time. It’s almost like those boardgames where you have to lay down extra tiles in order to proceed, only here each new tile may offer a horror homage, so keeping your eyes open and focused is a must!
‘Dead Ahead’ is a postcard animation to the world of the horror movie genre. Our intrepid travelers head out into the wilderness on their road trip only to find one nightmare scenario after the other. With each step forward a new monster emerges paying homage to such classics as Friday the 13th, Jaws and Pet Sematary.
Give it a watch below and let us know all the references you spotted!
