Have you ever found yourself wondering what it would be like to be immortal? Wanted to know how you would react to the prospect of living life for all eternity with no way out? What if you had no say in the manner? Director and writer Aaron Barrocas seeks to explore all of these things in a gloriously hilarious fashion in his latest short film, HALF-COCKED.
In HALF-COCKED, we get to watch as two ambitious doctors try to see whether or not they can bring someone back to life from the dead. With a tip of the hat to Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, we watch as they dig up the body of a recently deceased corpse, bring it home, and see whether or not the body of poor Rudy will take to the serum they’ve created to grant eternal life. Needless to say, the results are belly achingly hilarious.
Physical comedy doesn’t get the love that it deserves and it is truly a fun time watching Dr. Kirby (played by Pat Healy) and Dr. Flores (played by Vanessa Benavente) deal with the physicality of trying to deal with the corpse of Rudy (played with straight-faced humor by Lundon Boyd) after they’ve dug him up. That and the physical moments written in the script where Rudy violently reacts to sensory changes around him had me laughing way more than I ought to have laughed. If there happens to be a gif of Rudy punching Dr. Kirby somewhere on the internet, someone please send it to me because it’s physically hilarious gold.
It is in the reveal that poor Rudy never wanted to be alive in the first place that you really start to feel for the poor guy. It’s pretty cool to watch a guy get brought back from the dead. However, as we quickly realize that all Rudy has ever wanted was to be dead and to stay dead and embrace the full essence of what being dead is like that you want to shake your fist at the world. Luckily, the doctors soon realize that it’s better that some people stay dead in a brief scene that had me wondering what kind of answer Rudy gave to the doctors. We may never know.
Ultimately, HALF-COCKED is a hilarious short film that provides much-needed levity. The comedic timing between actors Pat Healy, Vanessa Benavente, and Lundon Boyd is brilliant and creates a soothing balm over the clear ethics violation that Healy’s and Benavente’s characters have committed (and will probably continue to commit) in the film. I highly recommend this film to anyone that needs a pick-me-up to distract them from the world for a brief 15-minute spell.
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