Blackburn student Rob Wingerter has produced a three-minute horror film titled “Trunk” that has gained attention in the Blackburn community as well as online. Originally, the film was an assignment for a video production class Wingerter was enrolled in where the assignment was to create an original short narrative film. So Wingerter took the opportunity to produce the film he had been wanting to before the class even started.
Set in an empty parking lot, the film follows a young woman who is carrying groceries into a building but returns to her car when she hears thumping noises from her trunk. There is little sound in the film—aside from the sound of footsteps and thumping from the trunk—which builds the tension of the film.
Wingerter was inspired to create a short horror film from watching other films with low budgets. He wanted a film where the “scary thing” was never seen, hence the trunk noises that occur throughout the film. As a college student, Wingerter’s resources were limited and he had to be creative with how he would bring this “scary thing” in the trunk to life. He used everyday things around him to make the whole thing feel more real: his own car, the parking lot, and the lighting. Without an expensive lighting set, Wingerter depended on the natural light from the sun to help bring this story to life.
“Trunk” came to be after Wingerter decided that with the limited resources the car would be the best setting for this film. In an email he said, “The creepiest thing I could think of to do with a car was to have noises coming from the trunk and then having it be empty when you check it. That seemed like enough make someone wig out, especially in an empty parking lot.” The whole premise of something so mundane and non-threatening turning point is what brought an element of horror to Wingerter’s film.
While Wingerter wrote, directed and filmed the entire thing, Blackburn alumna Lisa Knight starred in the short film. She talked about how this film was filmed in one day and how she would have to redo scenes if they were not perfect. She was also the one who made the knocking sounds in the trunk. While filming she said that it was a lot of fun even though she does not like seeing herself on camera.
Although“Trunk” started as a class project, it has since been put on Ash Hamilton’s horror film website, Horror-Fix, a site filled with everything horror. Wingerter’s film has been viewed nearly 400 times on Horror-Fix and for “capitaliz[ing] on the mundane and prey[ing] upon the otherworldly quality of those spaces unseen.”