Higher level
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Higher Level is a 2001 short film written and directed by Anthony Kinsella, and produced by Edwin Lee for C13 Pictures. It played during the 2001 Fresh Film Festival in Limerick, Ireland to mixed reviews. It has since however enjoyed some succsess of the internet with generally positive reviews.
The film, based in part on Faust a tragic play by Johann Wolfgang von Geothe, follows the protagonist, James O'Brien (played by Darryl Kinsella) as he makes a clandestine pact with the Devil (Shane Brady). He has one day to commit an act of murder, after which he will receive full marks in his Leaving Certificate.
[edit] Synopsis
The film begins with 18 year old James O'Brien making a frantic phone call to his girlfriend Sarah (Sarah Bolger). She is inquistive about how his Leaving Certificate is going, but he warned her frantically to get out of the house as someone is coming for her. His phone runs out of credit and he is cut of before she can understand what he is saying. Sarah puts down the phone as she sees a strange entity come through the front door.
James is sitting a Leaving Certificate exam, but cannot focus. He asks the invigilator can he leave to go to the toilet. Initially she refuses to allow him as candidates may not leave the exam hall within the first thirty minutes of the exam. James is overcome by rage and then attacks her until he is pulled away by several students. He is then allowed to the bathroom. In the bathroom James, obviously under huge emotional strain, leaves a message for the Devil on his mobile phone. He waits for him to arrive and a after a few secoonds a young English bouy enters. He seems to be quite pleasant and polite yet he obviously instills great dread in James. He then transforms into the Devil's natural state, a thin creature who seems to be covered in black tar. Over the course of their angered conversation it is explained that James has made a pact with the Devil that he can take his girlfriend's soul with him to hell In return for full marks in his Leaving Certificate. The relevence of James' phone call at the beginning of the film, is explained when the Devil realises that James has backed out of the deal and warned his girlfriend of the inpending attack. The audience learns that Sarah had escaped unharmed, as the Devil proposes a new deal. James is ordered to kill one person before the end of the day or the Devil will ensure that he fails his Leaving Certificate. James leaves the school in search of a victim. While at home he examines him self in the mirror only to be greeted with a reflection of the Devil, in his own body. The Devil comically berates him, trying to coerce him into murder. He stipulates that he wants the murder to take place before lunch time as his refuses to miss watching Oprah today which is about "hermaphrodite kids". Both the thought of this image and his increasing emotional instability cause him to vomit against a wall near the school.
He then sees a young boy playing football against a wall. The boy is eating a bag of Haribo sweets and upon offering one, is shot dead by James.
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