I Miss Us opens with a couple, Marc (Matthew Springle, Loaded Guns) and Abigail (Maia Henkin, Quinceañera, Narrow) taking a drive. From their conversation, it sounds like their relationship is having issues but they believe that what they’re going to do will help.
The drive is interrupted by a flashback to ye olden tymes where a wounded French soldier encounters a strange woman in a cave, Then by an encounter in the present with a bunch of guys drinking beer and playing with their guns. That fades into another flashback, this time to the 1920s and a discussion about dietary habits. That leads us back to the present again. It’s night and the couple has pitched their tent and is sleeping as a familiar group of heavily armed men approach.
I Miss Us is a fourteen-minute short written and directed by Roth Rind (Loaded Guns, Christmas Tradition), who was a producer on The Bumbry Encounter. Unlike that film, there’s no deep message here beyond being true to your nature. No matter what others think of it.
Rind offers just enough clues in the first half to let you know that this isn’t a normal couple, but you can’t be sure of what their secret is. And then, just to keep you on your toes, I Miss Us subverts what you think is going to happen a couple of times in the final minutes. All of which sets up a wild, and surprisingly bloody, finale.
Cinematographer Jerome Stolly (Murder Bury Win, Crabs!) deserves credit for delivering some atmospheric night scenes that make the work of the stunt and effects crews that much more effective.
An amusing and well-made short, I Miss Us is well worth fifteen minutes of your time. It’s currently available to watch on Vimeo, or just scroll down past the trailer.