The world has been scheduled to end. We have wondered about it, worried about it, stocked up on canned food and water because of it. We have told our families that we love them, we have built bomb shelters, we have made escape plans. We have prepared.
This is not the first time. Children throughout the Cold War were taught to “duck and cover”, diving under their desks to practice for potential nuclear warfare. As 1999 came to an end, and a new millennium dawned, families filled their cupboards, hugged their children and waited. Nothing happened. On May 21st 2011, Harold Camping, a radical Evangelical radio broadcaster, predicted the Rapture would come.
When it didn’t, he revised his prediction for October 21st. Nothing happened. The Mayan calendar ends on December 21st, 2012, and with this, some again predict the world’s demise.
It’s only a few short months before 2012 comes to an end. And as this encroaches, whether you believe that there will be a December 22nd, 2012 or not, the possibility will be all around you.
Ryan Ohm’s seven-minute short, The Night the Sky Fell in New Haven, presents the world’s possible end in the “small, sleepy town” of New Haven—best known as the home of Yale University and Pepe’s pizza. Neither of these are mentioned in the film. Instead we get a small glimpse of a young man, Matty, as he considers the end of the world and what he must do while he still has the chance.
This film succeeds when the characters are allowed to communicate without saying a word; when they speak, the acting falls flat. The shots are generally uninspired yet there is potential in them. The story, however, is oddly and refreshingly pure and is buoyed by a strange, but lovely score, which sets the mood perfectly. This vignette of a short reaches for places that it doesn’t quite grasp, but it’s certainly worth watching it try.
