Advantage (2007)
*** (out of 4)
Interesting short about a couple drunk teens who go to a tennis court to mess around and drink some more but before long it appears there's something else there with them. As the teens go to leave the court appears to come to life and won't allow them out. ADVANTAGE is a mildly entertaining short that shows promise from director Sean Byrne as he clearly has an eye for some style. I'll admit that I've seen dozens if not hundreds of ghost stories yet I believe this is the first one dealing with a haunted tennis court. It's a pretty wild idea to begin with but I thought the director and screenwriter did about as good of a job with it as you could expect. The first seven-minutes pretty much has the teens messing around and then the final three-minutes has the court coming to life. I didn't find there to be any suspense but then again I think a lot of this has to do with the actual setting. The film was clearly influenced by the Japanese ghost movies and this is easy to spot with the fast cutting pace as well as the ending when we actually see what's doing all the damage. I thought the two actors (Mark Winter, Shelly Lauman) were also quite good in their roles. The 2.35:1 aspect ratio is also put to good use as the director really uses it to his advantage including a very good shot early on as the drunk couple are walking away from their car and the image of the house behind them was quite good. This certainly isn't a classic ghost tale but it's a nice way to kill ten-minutes.