Very Cool!!!

Let's be realistic.

I gave it a 7.5 out of 10

This is a dark and sometimes deeply uncomfortable drama

The Yellow Sign was a short film that played like an episode of "Twilight Zone," or maybe "Tales From The Darkside." It is about a young woman who works at an art gallery and has dreams about an artist and his work. She seeks him out, hoping to get him to do a show at her gallery, but he behaves very strangely. He agrees to show his work at her gallery if she poses for a portrait, which she does over a period of time. With each visit, they talk more about her dreams, and how they are connected. Finally, the painting is finished and we find out that he is somehow exchanging her for the freedom of his own soul, or something. She escapes by tearing up a contract they had together, and he is pulled back into some dark dimension. It ends with her gaining success, but she appears to be evil now. It did a good job establishing an atmosphere, but I wasn't very interested in the characters or anything that happened to them. I didn't really understand everything that happened, or all the details of the backstory.

I saw a poorer-quality version of this at a World Horror Convention, so I was excited to see how the remastered DVD was. Vanek's direction was sound, evoking a foreboding atmosphere and growing uncertainty as to the dividing line between reality and the world of Carcosa and dreams. The dialog did not seem forced or unlikely (though perhaps I would have liked to have seen that the gallery needed a successful show, rather than having a throwaway line to that effect). But equal credit must go to the actors and to Jason Voss' evocative paintings. Dale Snowberger could easily have overplayed Aubrey Scott, but he was sinister without being hammy.

Aaron Vanek's terrific adaptation of "The King in Yellow" is a bone-chilling story about a woman caught between two worlds and her relationship to a mad artist. This is sure to please any fan of Lovecraft, especially those enamored of Robert Chambers' work. Vanek successfully captures the atmosphere of Chambers' work like never before. He is in no small way assisted by Tynes' clever script, which superbly translates to the screen all the elements of what makes Chambers so great on the page. (Lovecraft fans who might not be familiar with Vaneks' other films might be familiar with the sublime Pagan Publishing, which Tynes founded.) The best performance was by Shawna Waldron as Tess. She was charming, even mesmerizing, although all the performances were terrifyingly good. The film was shot on HD and is of surprisingly high quality -- no small feat and certainly a feather in Vanek's cap for working so deftly in the medium.I can't wait to see what Vanek scares up next!

In his update of Robert Chambers's classic horror story, director Aaron Vanek has crafted a haunting film with some genuinely unsettling moments. The story follows young art gallery owner Tess Reardon (Shawna Waldron) as she tries to convince enigmatic painter Aubrey Scott (Dale Snowberger) to exhibit his exhibit his paintings at her gallery. When Scott agrees to the show only if Reardon poses for him, the audience is drawn into a weird tale of ancient forces and conflicts and scary stuff. Great atmospherics and stylish production design express Vanek's dark aesthetic, helping to make "Yellow Sign" a satisfyingly chilling experience.