Icecap Seven: A Half-Hour Mystery Blended with Horror

Daniel Sandoval’s Icecap Seven is a 32-minute mystery produced on a shoestring budget that follows three characters through entwined, non-linear narrative threads. Kevin, Benji and Laura, three characters who are in motion throughout the film, face dilemmas whose sources are only partially offered to the audience. 

Laura (Chelsea Kerford) is Benji’s girlfriend. Kevin (Sandoval) is Benji’s friend. When they both want to see him, Benji (Mario Ayala) is faced with indecision that seems to extend beyond simple time commitments. As Benji seems to grapple with his dilemmas, Laura finds him and follows him. The film gives equal importance to all three characters; Kevin opens the film; much of Benji’s activities are seen through Laura’s surveillance; the film closes with a discovery that Benji inadvertently makes, closing the narrative loop. 

Shot in black and white, the film is brimming with uncertainty offered by the grayscale, a general lack of exposition, as well as audial (sound often cuts off) and temporal discontinuity. The last is particularly remarkable for its jarring effect: consecutive shots do not maintain continuity between day and night. Laura follows Benji in broad daylight, yet when the film cuts to Benji, it is already dark. Similarly, though Benji meets Kevin in daylight, it is dark not many shots ago. The absence of continuity is not replaced by some other narrative cue or artistic construction. 

Icecap Seven attempts to create mystery and horror, enhanced by sparsely used dialogue but is constrained by its creative choices. By its end, the sense of uncertainty remains in place, horror now added to it. One wonders what conclusions Laura would draw had she waited much longer. 

Watch Icecap Seven Short Film Trailer