A man desperate to find his missing wife turns to a blind psychic in director Adrienne Lovette’s fascinating short chiller Hidden Daylight. The film examines guilt, deception, and more – let’s save some surprises for first-time viewers – in a wonderfully crafted piece.
A businessman (David Rey) pays a blind psychic (John Rice, who also wrote the screenplay) to help him find answers about his wife (Ella Jane New). The psychic can allegedly see through the eyes of a hacksaw-wielding serial killer, and the murderer has taken the wife. The businessman isn’t fully honest with the psychic; he says that he was working late on the night of his disappearance but he was in fact spending time with his mistress (Rica de Ocampo). Through visions and flashbacks, viewers see what transpired that night.
John Rice’s screenplay cleverly presents the proceedings on the night of the wife’s disappearance in a manner that would require spoiling the short. Suffice it to say that the screenplay finds a terrific balance between the past and present, as the encounter between the two men is every bit as gripping as what transpired on that night.
Adrienne Lovette (who makes a brief appearance as the psychic’s neighbor) does a super job directing and uses the most of Hidden Daylight’s two main settings: the respective homes for the blind psychic and the couple. The set decoration for the psychic’s apartment is intriguing, with unexpected decor including antlers and animal skulls, and rifles.
John Rice gives a fascinating performance as the psychic, subtly changing emotions from the moment he greets the businessman and throughout their meeting. David Rey imparts his guilt-racked character with seriousness and despair. Ella Jane New is solid as a wife struggling to keep her marriage together.
Adrienne Lovette was named the 2016 Women in Horror Honoree at the FEARnyc Film Festival this past October. Hidden Daylight shows that she is indeed deserving of this award. The short is currently on its film festival run. For more information, check out Man of the Crowd Productions’ Facebook page at www.facebook.com/manofthecrowdproductions.
Hidden Daylight: 
(4 / 5)
He is a contributing writer for the "Phantom of the Movies VideoScope" and “Drive-In Asylum” print magazines and the websites Horror Fuel, Diabolique Magazine, The Scariest Things, B&S About Movies, and When It Was Cool. He is a co-host of the "Uphill Both Ways" pop culture nostalgia podcast and also writes for its website. Joseph occasionally proudly co-writes articles with his son Cohen Perry, who is a film critic in his own right.
A former northern Californian and Oregonian, Joseph has been teaching, writing, and living in South Korea since 2008.
