- A video call surprise party turns tense when the birthday girl's friend group appear to know something she doesn't.
- Surprise 2023 (short film) Directed by: Madison De La Garza Written by: Max Marlow
At first, it seems just like a normal birthday greeting call from a group of friends that took place during the peak of the pandemic, when everyone is contained in their houses. Zoe, the birthday girl was surprised through a video call by her friends led by Ben (her boyfriend). With the usual cheerful response from the birthday girl, everything flows the way Ben wanted the call to be.
However, Zoe started to be confused with how her friends' physical looks had changed a lot. First, she noticed one of her friends, Sammy, grew a beard. This shocked her either due to a short time that he was able to do it (they must just have met not long time ago before her birthday) or Sammy is having a hard time to grow one. Second, she was surprised how Yasmin was in the Philippines when she had just told Zoe that the pandemic restricted her to travel to her country. Finally, everything was slowly revealed when the drunk Sammy played a game during the unwrapping of gifts. Sammy guessed a certain gift that Zoe have received, exactly. Zoe was surprised and confused, and everyone else in the video call became startled and panicky. Sammy left the call when Zoe started asking questions. This was followed by Anna and Yasmin, leaving Ben and Zoe in the call alone. Ben became silent for a long time and started explaining the situation.
Turns out, they have been doing the call at different time (Ben and friends being in the present, while Zoe is in a period that was perhaps 4 years ago). Zoe was dead during the current call but the link seems to connect them on the day of her birthday where she still exists. In the video call, Zoe is stuck in her 19th birthday while everyone else moved forward in the actual world. This is why at the beginning of the call, Ben is adjusting the time and year and reminded everyone to do better, better than the last calls that they did for Zoe.
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