Writer/director/star Eric Albert Branstrom has crafted a wonderfully atmospheric little film about a haunted object and unresolved trauma. Serenade is a class on how to construct mood, dread, and a simple but effective narrative with little dialogue and lots of punch.

The cinematography is quite good for a film shot entirely on an iPhone with the 8mm app.  The washed out colors and framing screams autumn from the first shot.  A hipster who runs an antique store pulls over when he sees an old fashioned record player with a record cabinet. He puts it in his car, takes it to his shop then home, and cleans it up.  He finds some old records within the sleeves of the cabinet. He also finds occult drawings and paraphernalia and information about a missing girl. He then begins to hear her screams and cries on one of the records.  The player turns on mysteriously. He becomes haunted (in every sense of the word) by the missing girl.  Then things get interesting.

Branstrom refers to Serenade as a “lo-fi horror film,” which is a wonderfully apt description. It feels (and looks) like a short from the seventies. Despite its simplicity, it rewards repeated viewings.  On my third time through I was still noticing new details.  Again, Serenade is an exercise in restraint and atmosphere delivering a chilling little tale of a man finding a haunted object and becoming haunted himself.  Highly recommended.

9 out of 10