Written and directed by Charles Chudabala, 40uR is a horror short that brews homemade-movie-looking horror, casting a spell of magic and ritual to cover the film’s low production value. Though there seemed to be a few issues with sound and diction, as far as comprehending line deliveries, 40uR proves that all one needs is a story, a few well-meaning actors, and a camera to make some magic.

40uR stars Jennifer Nangle, Erica Denise Curry, Alex Hogy, and Charles Chudabala as four witches in a small but dedicated coven. One evening, the coven is due to perform a ritual that, with their powers combined, will allow one chosen witch to “ascend” and receive unimaginable power. Though doing so will cause the witches to go their separate ways, the group partakes in the ritual, though their chanting is interrupted when a shadowy figure joins them.

I appreciate that director Chudabala does not lean heavily on expositional overtures, however, 40uR seems to be missing information to explain the purpose of this ritual or the reason for risking breaking up the coven by performing it. The sound quality being inconsistent added insult to injury, as far as comprehension. The actors, collectively, portrayed a tension riddled intra-dynamic between each witch very well, but when given moments of individual monologues, I found that the performances suddenly seemed amateur.

The background stories the characters were given were supposed to be sad but came off silly, and therefore, distracting. It would have been much better if these monologue moments were nixed completely, they seemed shoe-horned into the story to achieve some kind of emotional draw, which is unnecessary to a story that should have been focused on a witchy ritual.

The poor sound causing me to continually elevate the volume, costuming, amateur acting performances, and lack of attention to the core plot of the story tainted this viewing, however, in this short film’s last throes, a good final 10 seconds of horror is produced that is surprisingly scary, thanks to some disjointed body acting from the film’s supernatural monster, played by Joe Filippone. Overall 40uR leaves a bitter taste of homemade horror that was not able to overcome this aesthetic due to its lack of creativity in story writing and its deviation from the main event.

Give it a shot at the link below and see for yourself!

5 out of 10