Céline Roustan
It’s picture day at Simone’s predominantly white high school, and as she prepares with her best friend Emma, an existential terror creeps in, fully emerging once she finds herself in front of the camera. In Everything Goes Dark, Writer/director Alex Casimir plays with genre to vividly illustrate the discomfort of standing out and the anxiety it creates, all through the prism of a coming-of-age narrative centered around one of the most universal school rites of passage.
“This short was a way for me to confront some unresolved feelings that lingered in my brain after twenty or so years of going to predominantly white schools”, Casimir confessed to us. Co-written with Mackenzie Chang Russell, the film’s inception came from such a personal experience, the director decided to shoot it in his old high school, a decision that, he noted, significantly heightened his “personal attachment.”
Discussing the origins of the Everything Goes Dark narrative, Casimir explained that two ideas came together when crafting the film: his inability to “quite articulate what made [him] feel uncomfortable in those environments”, and the anxiety triggered by how he was perceived and how it affected his identity. Another key influence came from a conversation he had with his aunt (after the infamous Will Smith slap at the Oscars), where she cornered the term that Simone uses in the film – a “black-out moment”. These themes all come together around what Casimir describes as a concern Black people have “of letting out any sort of aggression in fear of how other people will react and sometimes fail to understand”.
Piper Verbrick (L) & Amina Summers star in Everything goes Dark
All that discomfort and inner anger from feeling different are channeled into Simone’s character and how she has to survive picture day, being hit by one microaggression after another. Just like any well crafted genre film, the main character here is undeniably relatable, but then so is the monster inside of her. Casimir’s touch is subtle enough to make the film poignant without being farcical, engaging the audience with Simone as we see and feel her boiling up inside.
For the inner monster in Everything Goes Dark, Casimir opted for an approach that employed both VFX and makeup, perfectly complementing the film’s tone – as it’s not campy nor overtly terrifying. Where I find the film even more original than expected, was in the friendship of Simone and Emma, portrayed by Amina Summers and Piper Verbrick. The divide between them does not grow in a predictable manner but instead unfolds with subtle nuance, making the climax of the film all the more effective and realistic. Summers’ performance is especially remarkable, as we embark on that hellish day with her and watch her eventually come into her own.
Everything Goes Dark was partly produced through Film Independent Fiscal Sponsorship and had its World Premiere at Aesthetica, before making its way around the festival circuit with notable stops at Atlanta and the Palm Springs ShortFest. Casimir is currently developing a dark comedy short about a man being possessed by a rogue audiobook and a proof of concept for a feature about a dancer who becomes a pro-wrestler.