Tunnel (Award-Winning Short Film)

I'm sorry, but the ending totally lost it for me... when the guy was freaking out, constantly ending back up at the same place - that was scary AND to date, this had been one of the best fear inducing short horrors I have seen. I think a more ambiguous ending that leaves the fear of forever being lost would be better

The ending would have stood out as a great loop if the main character, after hearing the kazoo that final time, took out his kazoo and played it back meaning he was the one who played it for himself initially

Ahhh. Stumbling upon a dark, mysterious tunnel in the woods, then walking-in to it after hearing inexplicably -delayed "echoes." What could POSSIBLY go wrong?

This took the prestigious “I’ve seen this somewhere before” award.

First extra echo coming from a cave is my clue to run 🏃

Jump scares are unimaginative and uninspired. The end scene ruined what could have been a satisfying short film.

Addiction can be like this. Always circling back to the same dark threat, not wanting to enter in but it keeps calling to you no matter which direction you go.

Very cool concept! Loved it. I agree with others on the ending. I would have also liked to see more of a panic while the main character is running through the woods. More disheveled and scared maybe shots of desperately screaming for help. Even though there isn’t any sound, the audience would be able to feel the nightmare the actor felt. This would have sold the fear more for me IMO. Really well done I enjoyed this a lot.

2:40 NO way am I going near that tunnel. At first spontaneous sound.....I'd be running & saying The Lord's Prayer! :)

Pretty good. Great scenery and tense, but you won’t catch me going into a cave that keeps playing a kazoo back at me 😂

I watched this twice to see if I missed anything and I think I chose to just enjoy it for what it is. I like to think that the guy that walked in the tunnel was his friend that called to check on him in the beginning. Seems like maybe the main character was going through some things and maybe this tunnel was like an existential crisis that he couldn’t get out of until someone else came along

Oh, I've felt like this before! Being lost while hiking when no one else is around and the sun is starting to go down. It's scary. That's why you have to pack extra water, food, and something warm to wear just in case you become too tired to find your way out before dark. The scariest thing is mountain lions and bobcats that you see roaming around, not sinister caves. Hmmm. Then again, maybe I just got lucky to escape in time????? This film was pretty awesome! A sequel/part 2?

ending was funny. I felt like there were not any good idea for the end and they just wanted to finish with a joke. the script, the acting and as an idea this short as a whole deserves a better ending.

I will avoid tunnels.
Really beautiful scenery and loved the piano 🎼 music 🎶

Damn, was about to think i finally found a short horror story that was really well done, uncanny and maybe actually unsettling, then theres that ending... why :(

fantastic actor, his ability to convey emotions and thoughts without lines is incredible

It was okay until the ending scene. It went downtunnel at there. 2/10.

In japan, there is a tunnel like this, and nobody has the courage to enter, as they say, who enters, never leaves.🎌

there was this short movie recently where some guy enters a modern concrete tunnel where he could never escape from. He can still see the exits on both sides but simply can't reach them and if someone else enters, he doesn't even exist....

Great short! Loved the cinematography and camera angles. I know this cave and surrounding area. I love going there. You’ve now given me something to think about next time I go there. I do agree with the others here, if you had just left the whereabouts of the first guy unknown and let the second guy fall victim as well, that would have been a better ending. Still! Well done!!

What a beautiful landscape!

Is it me or does everything hinge on coincidentally having a kazoo? Thank goodness the other guy coincidentally had a headlamp. All joking aside, well shot. Technically this looks and feels like a well directed, good budget film. Bravo.

why is no one talking about how the movie gives, the vibe of "dark"

Watching it, instantly reminded me of the TV series Dark (2017). And the wheezing sound he heard back from the cave was from him, on the other end of the tunnel, a time displacement event, very similar to Dark. I agree the ending was rushed. It would have been better to see the skeleton remains of the photographer because he was caught in a time loop. Just like the next victim.

For me the use of Clair de Lune felt perfect to encapsulate the 'just one one' phenomenon that always hits me while hiking. I have to see whats up just one more hill, around just one curve, across one more stream, just one more...adventure. It feels so tempting to keep exploring.
Luckily, it's hasn't ended like this for me...yet.

The piano music at the beginning had a very nice touch, very well done! Sometimes you don't need "big" music to complement the film.

So I really loved this and I have some thoughts about the ending that make the initially weird and seemingly unnecessary last shot make a lot more sense, or at least, my theory on what was happening would account for it in an interesting way. Could be wrong, but I don't think there's any evidence against my interpretation, so for anybody interested, here's what I'm thinking.
The first thing we learn about the protagonist is that he's been acting out of character lately - it sounds like he's being distant in a way that's not typical for him and his friends are starting to worry. This might be nothing, but considering how insistent his friend was on the phone, I'm inclined to think we heard that call for a reason. Basically, we immediately establish the possibility that the protagonist is not doing well mentally. If that isn't actually relevant, then I'm not sure why we had that call on-screen at all. (Entering the tunnel was also weirdly hard for him, like it was repelling him on purpose until eventually it let him in. I'll get to why that might be worth noting in a moment.)
At the end, the echoing sound of his whistle... thing (can't remember what those are called) plays from the tunnel as someone else (someone who seems like the cave explorer type) approaches the tunnel. But, the tunnel allows the new guy in immediately. There's no spatial warping mind-screw, he just walks in. As he's getting deeper into the cave, what originally sounded like the echo of the whistle-thingy starts to shift and sound more like a weird, hysterical human noise, kind of an unsettling, broken whimper. Then the new guy sees the first guy, who's spaced out hardcore, and we get a strange jump-scare.
So basically, what I think was happening is that there was no supernatural element, or if there was, it had nothing to do with space shifting. I think the original protag's friends were right to worry about him, and we're seeing him have a psychotic break. There may never have been an echo of a whistle at all, just the sound of him freaking out deep in the tunnel, severely distorted by the tunnel's acoustics (hence the slow shift of the sound into something very different when the second guy comes in). Second guy approaches the cave, hears a weird noise, and goes in. Nothing strange happens at first and he is allowed to enter immediately rather than experiences weird space stuff, because nothing strange other than mental illness has ever been happening. In the cave, he finds the first guy, who's losing his shit, and first guy kind of lunges for second guy in an ambiguous way that might or might not have been hostile.
That's my two cents. I like my interpretation better than "and the jumpscare at the end was out of place and didn't quite fit", so I'm probably sticking to it. That said, even if this wasn't the intention and the very end just kind of fizzles and that's that, I'm not gonna complain much about the literal final second of a video not landing very well when every other second was fantastic. All in all I really enjoyed it. At best it's a really clever subversion of expectations that's taking a big risk on viewers not putting pieces together, and at worst, it was an excellent horror short that had a single second of mild disappointment at the end. Either way, I had a great time.

Rule No 1 for the aspiring cave explorer: always bring a second light source.

In konkan part of Maharashtra, India, this phenomenon is called as Ranbhul. (Ran is jungle and bhul means lost). Person can come out of this situation only if he is lucky or someone helps him. Mostly good spirits help in such situations as our forefathers believe.

Scared the crap out of me. It's left me with that creepy feeling.. to be honest I got so unnerved I closed my eyes when I saw the first guy standing facing the cave wall. Good job!

I COMPLETELY disagree with all the other commenters. I really like the ending. I got the sense the cave glamoured him into believing he was trying to leave the woods, when really he was staring at the wall the entire time

In Malay culture, this is real. We call this situation as 'kena sorok' (hide by 'something') Mostly they were found by rescuer after a few days but some cases, they were lost forever without any clue.

Intense! Awesome! Great short film, loved it👍

Suspenseful short with a fun ending. Don't take things so seriously folks. It's just a movie.

Wow, he must’ve been the only person to enter the contest for that award.

Creepy video. Well done. I would like to see a movie.

I think I would have liked a different ending, but what you settled on worked well enough. Strong Blair Witch vibe, obviously. Kudos! Glad YT threw this one on my feed.

Deserved such an award winning the short film Is amazing!!!

I am so glad you made the protagonist smart enough to walk away from the cave at a _90-degree_ angle. It wasn't enough, but at least he tried.

In our beliefs, we need to take off our clothes and put them back in reverse. Our ancestors believe that back then most places are either woods or forest hence people were prone to getting lost. Happened to me before getting lost in the woods and tried reversing my clothes. I was able to return home as if someone led me. I thought I was only lost for about an hour but when I got home, they were looking for me for about 4 hours already.
There are mountaineers and hikers who happened to get lost in the forest and were never found again despite knowing this belief. Some people say that maybe they never felt lost at all hence they never tried reversing their clothes. Some maybe have not remembered this trick at all. Some may have thought that they are just still hiking for hours but they are actually lost for weeks or even months already.
We have folklore belief that people who got lost in the forest probably have found the home of mythical environmental spirits. What they see is no longer the reality of the place hence there is no way for them to go back home.

These things on KRplus about disappearances and things like camping. I've been a life long camper, hiking and hunting/fishing these types of shows. It's made me scared of the woods in a way. Guess I better quit watching them. That book series Missing 411 show different people missing under bazaar circumstances in the trails and parks. Sometimes they are found and sometimes not. The shows/podcasts and books that are true are the freaky ones.

It seems to me, this cave has become a superstar. It definitely deserves an Oscar.

What I love about this is that it kept me invested despite the crisp of cinematography. The angling is brilliant it gave us a different point of view of the environment. Makes the forest creepy. The ending was kind of disappointing but it can still be improved! Luv this.

I really loved the use of sound and the different cinematography used in this film. The different cuts used in the film really portrayed a sense of being lost scared!

you can't just leave the story line there!!! more, please

I love how beautiful the scenery is, including the tunnel. It creates such a great contrast to how threatening this lovely place gets when there's no way out.

Scary, real horror! I love it, a masterpiece up till the ending.

This would be a great big budget Sasquatch movie. They are excellent mimics. Aliens, ghosts and witches have been done to death...

I would have liked a better ending. Apart from that this is a great short movie very well done. This topic is perfect for a full-fledged horror movie. Excellet stuff.

Pretty cool stuff, the rising action was solid..Kinda reminds me of the first episode of Dark, when the main character enters a tunnel searching for his lost brother, and falls into a time continuum or something..

Just in the Whistle...The Director BLOW MY MIND!!! Huh..How Many Ghoos Bums...Not just the Bums. Almost like an electric shock went Head to TOE. That's it Bro. Amazing...Amazing. What a great horror that i have ever watched. Deserve to be awarded. 👏👏👏

Always fun to discover a new fear you never had before. 🙃

Would of been cool if he was a really old man in a red flannel shirt breathing his last into a purple kazoo…

if I ran away from that creepy tunnel just find my back at it again, I would crap my pants, and that crap would crap itself

Wow. From Mild Scene to shocking twist of the story. Amazing.

I agree with other comments. The concept and buildup were absolutely brilliant. The ending was one of the worst I've ever seen. This should just be reuploaded ending with him going into the cave. If anything, it could have been when the guy walked into the cave at the end he saw several copies of the original guy. Or he just saw a wall with no entrance to the cave to increase confusion. Anything but the current ending... it didn't even look good and wasn't even remotely scary or creepy. Such a shame because if this were to be remade with a better ending itd be one of the best out there.

he just needs a light at the end of the tunnel experience !
W E I R D !!!!!!

Seems like he got a small case of " Tunnel Vision " , Awesome short film, Deserved an award...

Missed opportunity for the perfect comedy. After all the Kazooing, The hiker pulls a gun and confidently walks inside the tunnel. Screen cuts to black while you hear a single gunshot. Credits roll.

In 1984, I left an outreach ministries parked van that was 9 miles away from where we were camped at Babyfoot Lake in Oregon, thinking I could make it back there again soon if I hustled. It was about an hour after dark on a recently wet, but now clear-sky, full moon evening. I was traversing the mountainside trail I had came from 2 hours earlier when all of a sudden THE STORM came in suddenly, obscuring all signs of the bright full moon and stars. Talk about dark!
I now had to feel my way as I walked on the trail because I couldn't see the trail even at all. So I got the bright idea that If I touched a tree on my right as I went forward, I'd veer left a little. Same if I had encountered a tree on my left. Thankfully, most of the storm's heavy downpour had hit the mountaintop high above me. Well, I thought anyways at the time. Then I heard THE NOISE. Something was coming right at me from high up the mountain and TEARING through lots of trees to do so! I could distinctively hear trees making snapping sounds as if they'd at least been hit really hard, if not broken in two. The loud sounds were coming CLOSER and CLOSER.
When the 'thing' got to around 50 feet from me, I froze and held my breath while praying that BIGFOOT wasn't going to eat me! It was HIM, I knew it. I was going to be one of his victims like we'll maybe read about. And I just knew Bigfoot could probably smell me, zero right in on my location, or maybe my fear. Or both. It was hunting me down while the rain covered it's tracks! Smart! I had enough time to think Bigfoot hunting down a defenseless human in a storm was kind of smart. But anyways...
40 feet, 30 feet, 20 feet, 10...9...8...feet and it seemed as if the 'BIGFOOT OR OTHER SCARY ITEM' was going to pass several feet in front of me instead of directly come right at me in the pitch dark that I had grown a bit more accustomed to visually. Then one last tree WHACK and CRACK and I watched a huge boulder the size of a large doghouse say "hello" and "goodbye" to me and tear down the mountain far below just about the time I recognized what it actually was.
I was suddenly feeling so blessed that I was alive and all was well and good, mostly. I was then aware to be also glad I had somehow been aware that I had a bladder to consider. As that boulder was tearing trough the trees to get me, I was concentrating only on my two weak knees, and I easily might forgotten all about the liquids other than rainwater flow that were involved.
PS: I liked my ending better than yours. Yours was a quick "BOO" when I was wanting thoughtful "Twilight zone".

Brilliant suspense, Great build up and creative angles, Really enjoyed it, Felt the emotion of being lost and confused, Ending was a bit flat but on a whole very impressive.

For me, this was about the power of sound. I think the film-maker might have first asked themself, "Let's take one simple innocent sound, like maybe a childish whizzy- whistle and see how creepy we can make it."
It doesn't matter what the ending is. (I see a lot of people complaining about the ending.) Any ending that gives any kind of finality is fine with me. It was about the sound itself. Now we spend hours trying to work out in our brains, what might have caused that non-echo. The acting was superb. The setting was beautiful. The music was perfect. And I was terrified.

Guy: *goes in a tunnel after hearing a weird noise coming from it*
Me: natural selection!

I’m of the David Lynch school of film-making. I love that the film doesn’t resolve to something obvious; it leaves deliberate gaps so you can fill in your own ideas about what’s happening. It occurred to me that the message being left on his phone takes place later in the timeline, after he becomes stuck in the “loop” or whatever it is he experiences. I see this as a story about how we get lost in our own personalities, searching everywhere for some way to make sense of ourselves. .

Yeah, agree with the other folks re: The Ending. But the concept was good. I've seen some other tunnel pieces like this, and other cabin/horror that is similar where people come back to the same spot. But I still think it was well executed here as well. I almost think it could have ended with the second guy just entering and letting it fade to black as his torso filled the cave opening behind him. Like "another victim of the cave".

Really enjoyed this-nice and twisted Thankyou

That’s 7 minutes and 53 seconds of my life that I can never get back.

Just the casual kazoo that every hipster has with em

hey, good short movie. be horrible if something like this DID ever happen

Why is this so terrifying?!

I thought he was gonna see a doppelganger demon version or something. trippy film man

I know this place. Nice to see it hasn't changed in 30+ years.

Ending disappoints

Very good! Very well acted & the photography was beautiful. The sounds from the cave were def. scary. I would have liked a better ending...some story around it. Maybe a continuation of the movie to show more -?
This reminded me of an actual experience i had walking in the woods. I was fairly familiar with this forest & came upon a very small waterfall . It was about mid-afternoon. The waterfall was non- descrip, but i felt drawn to it. I seemed to hear a voice coming from the water, a female voice. There were colors in the water too & I was fascinated by them. Next thing i knew i was looking down at my hiking boots walking back along the trail i had taken to get there. I had zero memory of leaving the waterfall or of how much time had passed, but the sun was low in the sky so I knew a fair amount of time had passed.
I was so freaked out i couldn't hike that trail for several years. Finally i did go back , but nothing happened. It was just a little waterfall.

This is amazing. I love watching this. You deserve that award. I want to make stuff like this! Thanks for sharing your talent with your viewers.

Moral of the film
Never leave your camera

I really enjoyed this. Well done!

Great sceneries like the part where he is taken a photo by a flow river scene

I wanted it to end with the new guy walking through the tunnel and seeing the backpack and camera on the other side. Just cut to black.
Much scarier.
Great film though!

THE KAZOO GOT ME 🤣

Captivating and engaging . So cool what you did here

The ending could have been more strange and unsettling, but everything else was well done and constructed, certainly was hair-raising, an interesting concept.

I was watching this video from India Kerala , I had a similar experience in my past while I had been walking alone in a rubber plantation in my thirteen years age I was isolated in the middle of very large plantation and I couldn't find out the access to come out in to my route I wandered more than three hours I fall in fear but last I prayed to God for finding out my route finally I reached in my proper access but I didn't see any devil but I think something bad evils in the atmosphere what we need to do in this kind of situation We must trust on God and be courageous don't lose your mind control So only God would save us ..thank you

This was really great and enjoyable to watch! Excellent work!

Didn’t think kazoo sounds could be so scary

The short movie version of a twix. Nice with a cup of tea & a wee laugh at the end. Light entertainment.

Reminds me of the web series DARK

What "awards" did this win?

The tunnel looks like a rail road tunnel. You can tell the paths he is walking on, is the railroad bed. I wonder where this is.

kinda expected this to be about a spooky tunnel horse

Love the concept. Well, done!!!

That was brilliant. Never thought you could do so much with just few camera angles, and one person.

The best part is, I personally always go hiking in remote places all by myself. Except I never bring my phone.

I surfed and this film popped up. I had to look twice because that's my back yard. Many keg party's at Steeprock in the 70's. Walked through that train tunnel in June 1975 and the walls were still Ice. The rail line went to Roxbury station. Pretty Cool Stuff. Watch out for Bears.

Great work!

Very well done!! I could see this as a full length film!! Look forward to more!

So happy I found this short movie. A year ago, I got a super space cake in Amsterdam and experienced exactly the same story - walking in a circle and seeing same ppl on same part of the city, doing same things. Got the weird feeling that I’m dead and my soul is circulating non stop in a circle. On top of that I didn’t know how I “die”, so that’s added and extra stress and much more intense to the space trip. The wildest experience ever in my life. Get a friend with you, if you ever do some shit like that 😂

I think when he got lost, the sound of Tunnl's whistle made him tremble as he picked up his own whistle and blew it. Suddenly, he seemed to understand something, filled with despair. And then the end of the play.

Shorts have approximately zero time for backstory or character development, and oftentimes ending closure. I understand and respect that. This movie was also shot with very few people on an extremely small budget, and also during the pandemic. I think the creators did a fantastic job utilizing their resources. I would suggest running the storyboard past a few people before diving into the project though. The ending would have been better if left open. Shorts don't have to close the story and this one failed in it's attempt to do so. I'd modify one scene, fade to black, and run credits. A good 90% of the criticism on this page wouldn't exist. Keep doing what you're doing though. Cheers

Which award did that win? Why did he have a kazoo? Why did he drop his backpack? Why was his face bleeding? Why was this done at all?