At some point in our lives, most of us would have had a conversation with a friend/relation/partner [delete as appropriate] that revolved around the opening line of “I had the weirdest dream about you last night”. Tapping into this commonplace occurrence and expanding it into a 20-minute short film of unsettling tone and swelling tension, Carles Torrens’ Sequence is a bizarre thrill ride that feels as ridiculous as it is relatable.

Beginning with a shot of our anti-hero Billy, as he wakes next to his still sleeping girlfriend Amy, the mood of the film is set within the opening 60-seconds as our protagonist tries to gently wake his slumbering sweetheart. As she opens her eyes and screams in fear into the face of her unsuspecting partner, she soon reveals the reasons for her panic – “I just had the most fucked up dream about you and I can’t really get it out of my head”. Whilst she won’t describe the extent of the dream, as she backs away from her boyfriend and locks herself in the bathroom, we soon start to understand the depths of depravity she was forced to witness (or endure) in her nightmare. It’s a captivating opening and that compelling nature just intensify as Billy heads for work and soon discovers that Amy wasn’t the only one to be dreaming of him last night.

As it states on our Submit page, we believe the next generation of storytellers will come from online and here at Short of the Week we pride ourselves on finding and sharing great stories. Sequence certainly falls into this category. At first, you may doubt its uniqueness as its premise feels like one that must have been before (I’m sure someone will point out in the comments if it has), but its just one of those ideas that feels so simple and so brilliant – you can’t believe it hasn’t been done before. With its impressive premise in place, the films success came down to Torrens’ talent to translate it to screen – and he does a sterling job. At 20-minutes long, Sequence falls into our ‘Long Short’ category, but it’s a film that doesn’t need to be accompanied with a pre-word about pace our length. The run-time flies by and the narrative never drags and although its conclusion is a little disappointing, the rest of the film reaches such levels of excellence, you really don’t care.