Drums review

By Terry Sherwood

Have you ever moved into a new home and found something left over from the previous Tennant?  Not Roman Polanski’s The Tenant but a haunted piece of the life that inhabited the space.  In the short Bulgarian film directorial debut of Miroslav Petkov titled Drums, a new renter finds supernatural electronic drums. 

  The renter Casey (Simona Rose) is having a bad day and is taking it out on a landlord male (Rudy Leadbetter) on her phone. The two banter back and forth about the shortcomings of the place and how it’s not ready.  Turns out the original tenant killed committed murder and was sentenced to death and now his spirit has taken over the drums.  Casey tries to rest only to hear the drums start to beat when she suddenly meets a rather sticky end.   

 Just over five minutes of Drums is shorter than some drum solos in songs, yet it moves with a punch. Once I overcome my personal feelings about electronic drums not being real drums myself the audience would find this a short simple direct excursion of notes with only short rests.

Casey is played by Simona Rose with a dark wardrobe and dynamite, reddish-tinged dark hair framing a face and physique with a similarity to Lady Gaga. She moves well through the scenes considering mostly talking on the phone to the harassed man who rented the place to her. 

Tension is building with moments of looking around the room which is where the direction slips as you don’t see enough of those evil bits of electronic mayhem in the corner of the room. Nothing sinister in them except they sit almost looking like some spider waiting to strike. Casey hears the drums play by themselves, yet it is only one hit that comes through on the film soundtrack.  Massive drum break like Keith Moon crushing the toms and cymbals in the later part of The Who’s song Won’t Get Fooled Again would be in order.   Lights flash, a bit of low-key end with the sound of fingernails ripping on the floor shrieks maybe an eyeball attached to the swinging bass drum pedal as Promark drumsticks make their mark. 

Drums is still worth a peek. Musically scored by Alberto Masoni whose notes sound so very close at one point like the bass and piano intro to a song called Therapy by the British punk band The Damned. I have a sticker from a visit to Stax Studios in Memphis Tennessee claiming that ‘Electronic drums got no soul’ in this case they have an unearthly one.