Language of the Sick (2014) – Slow Burn From Get Coned

It’s been quite some time but we’re back with a new short film review on #ShortMovieMonday!  I’m excited to be returning once again to the a Get Coned Productions film, this time known as Language of the Sick.  It was directed by Chris Durand, written by Mitchell Herrin and stars Herrin, Kelsey McCarter and Lesley Frey.  It tells the story of a filmmaker who leads unsuspecting participants in a documentary down a dark path into their very souls.

This is the third effort from Get Coned Productions.  We’ve reviewed their two previous movies Self Storage and Secret Family Recipe.  I was told by the film makers that this is more psychological in nature than their previous films so I’ll give you, the reader, the same caveat.

SPOILER ALERT: This review WILL talk openly about the plot of the film. If you want to experience the film as it was intended watch it before reading this review. Full film is embedded at the end of this post. 

Language of the Sick – Plot & Thoughts

Language of the Sick has a running time of just over 19 minutes.  This is much less a “horror” flick than the previous entries from the Get Coned crew, but its definitly creepy.  There’s absolutely no action to speak of and from a horror perspective there isn’t even a death or even a killer.  That said, this is a psychological piece that’s worth watching.

There are some audio issues which seem to be typical from this production house.  I went back and re-read my previous reviews and I called out the sound quality in both of those films as well.  It’s not terrible here, but there are a couple of times when the audio track clearly “changes” and it’s noticable.

Mitchell Herrin plays camera man Charlie Fincher.  He’s a documentary maker who sees the world through his camera lens… and only through his camera lens.  Herrin has a way of speaking where he enunciates very carefully that just makes the dude creepy.  From the word go you get the feeling that he’s “the bad guy”.  This is 100% due to the inflection that Herrin puts in his voice and the way he delivers his lines.  Well done.

Lesley Frey (Natalie) and Kelsey McCarter (Rebecca) also deliver great performances.  Lesley is only in the film for a few minutes, but she plays awkward and uncomfortable quite brilliantly.  Kelsey steals the show as she manages in just a few minutes to take her character on a true arch that would typically require quite a bit more screen time.  Many times with short films it’s tough for the audience to get invested in the characters… not the case here.

One other thing that I’ll point out is just HOW intense McCarter & Herrin are toward one another late in the film. Its as if the characters have known one another for years when we’re lead to believe they’ve just met one another. Not sure if this is by design, a limitation of the length of the film or a commentary on the “condition” of the characters, but it stood out to me.

You can find Get Coned Productions on their Facebook fan page where you can learn not only about Language of the Sick, but also their previous films Secret Family Recipe and Self Storage.  Make sure to give them a “like” and tell them ScareTissue sent you!