Touch review

By Simon Thompson

Writer and director Justin Burquist’s short-film Touch is both visually captivating, and striking in its originality. Made for a shoestring budget of $10,000, Burquist’s resourceful filmmaking gives the imagery and effects a polished look, to the extent that you could be tricked into thinking Touch was shot for three to four times more than it actually was.

The plot of Touch centres around Carmen ( Eva Ceja), who possesses a supernatural ability that allows her, through the sheer act of simply touching something, to be able to rewind past events. This ability obviously makes Carmen a valuable asset to law-enforcement and as such she is tasked with investigating a grizzly murder by the police. Coming in at a taut seven minutes, Touch is not a particularly plot-heavy movie and nor does it set out to be, the decision for there to be minimal dialogue and exposition is one made by Burquist because it would get in the way of the shorts greatest asset – its cinematography and editing.

Burquist’s use of a monochromatic colour palette and montage strongly reminded me of David Fincher’s Fight Club, not only in the speed of the cutting, but also in how the it allows Burquist to express his themes and ideas succinctly. From a visual perspective, Touch has the air of a 1970s/early 1980s Brian De Palma movie both in terms of the nerve-wracking atmosphere that Burquist is striving to create and also through the horrific depiction of the events leading up to the murder itself. Burquist’s marriage of the minimalism of Fincher with the expressive and unmistakable violence of De Palma creates an end result that is an absolute joy to look at, allowing Touch to stand out from many of the short films that I’ve watched.

To conclude, Touch is a fantastic short, that will have you watching it again and again to try and spot whether you missed something in the show-stopping rewinding sequence. It’s a movie which truly rewards you for paying attention, and serves as a strong indicator that Justin Burquist is a director who is well worth keeping an eye on.

“Touch” is now available to watch for free exclusively on Klipist.