The Self (short horror film) 

Hello everyone, this is Tuomas, one of the film's creators. I can't believe that we've gotten thousands of views and tens of comments (no I'm not trying to be sarcastic, my only other video with anywhere near this level of success is on a niche historical topic). Thank you all for the support. While the description has been promising another film for a year now, we still have not even begun to shoot anything else. Instead, I am considering re-editing "The Self" to improve the flow and pacing. I also want to give an especially big thanks to everyone who noticed the sound design, which was something that both Luke and I put a lot of time into conceptually, and I am very proud of how it turned out; but is also an area where I really hope to add to the cohesiveness and flow of the piece in any possible re-edit. Again thanks to everyone here on this page, it really means a lot.

the sound of the whistling was lit

That was pretty good. I expected the usual horror ending of the guy turning around and the monster is standing there, and presumably it gets him. The ambiguity and whistle were quite creepy.

That whistling in the beginning made my dog act up barking at everything. Lol

Learning to accept one's self is a high order human endeavor. I think most of us kinda just leave it at vague notions of preferences, denials and assumptions. Unsuccessfully running from yourself in the woods is a good metaphor. Well done. And the esoteric nature of this topic was well underscored by the soundscape. Nice job! Yup. Keep it up.

I agree, think he is running from himself instead of facing himself. Just like a metaphor for life, facing up to what you have done. My theory anyways.

Gosh darn it. Now you got whistling lol. I would have ran up to myself and and said. "Stop following me, I mean you! Whatever! Whaaaat dooo you waaaaant!!!! LoL.

Good and unsettling. Reminds me of a very old Twilight Zone episode starring Vera Miles set in a bus depot. I seriously appreciate the LACK of a last-second jumpscare. That became way trite eons ago. I can't understand why so many YT horror short makers continue to make use of it. Thanks again.

fantastic concept, good light and sound effects.

When ur trying to avoid someone at a party whos wearing the same outfit

Atmospheric, good use of the whistling, made it sound bleak and haunting , creepy as hell. A really great film

This is so well done! I really like the continuity of the whistling tune and how it's used so simply throughout the film.

Wouldn't you know, your out in the woods enjoying the birds, the tranquillity and having a bite to eat. Then all of a sudden the mood is spoiled..Having your other half hunt you down..DANG!!

If You try to hide from yourself, you will get lost in The dark.

Yess....you really can't run away from yourself...face it

I honestly love this. Footage doesn't need to look like like it's from a Christopher Nolan film to have a good concept behind it. It's simple, and it doesn't try to be something it's not. It might not be the prettiest film, but on conceptual design this film has a style that I appreciate; I can't quite put my finger on what I like about it exactly, so I have to imagine that's why I like it. Well done!

Don't go alone. Yourself will come with you

Excellent short! And I like the fact that it didn't have any dialog. Sometimes that can make or break a movie.

"It follows" forest edition

The whole thing with doppelgängers freaks me out . If a horror short exposes a fear in me then it did it’s job !!

I really appreciate this. It's almost dream-like. As if it has a deeper meaning. He goes to the woods- where most people go to self reflect, and he got scared of what he saw. He was running from himself. Or, it's an evil clone that's hell bent on killing and replacing him, who knows? lol

He should have crashed through the thickets Toward "himself" the first time he saw him, saying "Hey bro, how are we doing?!" 😉 Well done, Luke, Tuomas and everybody else involved in making this film! 👍

Fantastic film. The lighting, the scenery, the whistling. It was all so beautiful and peaceful.

Wherever you go, there you are; well done 👍

Awww he forgot his apple

deep meaning in that one..very good! Who wouldn't be terrified by their own doppelganger ?

The footsteps at the beginning of the video were off and not in sync when he was walking. Was that intentional? Because if it was that would be a really interesting idea.The other auditory sounds were quite cool. I especially liked how the music seemed to be a warped echo of the whistling from the beginning. The idea in and of itself was fantastic.

I am both irritated and frustrated by the ending, which means it's damn good. It gives the impression that indeed it was not one vision of himself, not one entity, but each he was was something new. Why is that? Is it splinters of his psyche? The ghosts of the forest taking on the image of the living entity it's seen? Perhaps even a species of creatures that camouflage or adopt their prey's appearance to seem less threatening (squirrel looking like a squirrel... probably unnoticeable to the squirrels, but humans have that X-factor that makes it obvious).

Stalked by ones own self in the forest...interesting, frightening...intriguing... I was certain it would end with with the actor being coached into the afterlife after an accidental death of which he was unaware. Very twilightzonesey :)

At first, I thought, 'A lonely walk in the forest, how nice.' But that quickly changed to, 'I don't like this! Get me out!'

"Hey, I'm your long lost twin brother! I just wanted to meet you in the creepiest way possible!"

Dang. And I thought that you were on the right path if you found yourself.

Constructive criticism: Do not fall into the trap of trying to make unique opening film credits. Do small-medium letters in a typecast color that fade in or out slowly at screens center. This is often overlooked. Sounds crazy but a professional big-budget film will spend a million+ dollars on design, color grading and visual effects to get theirs right. Do not try to compete with some $1000 over the counter editing software. The end credits were fine but they need to scroll slower and be smaller. Wardrobe imho is the most often overlooked aspect of all indie filmmaking. What a character wears is a form of powerful nonverbal communication and makes him a "character". Even the whites showing from socks will draw the eyes. Same for a simple hat logo or watch. Those subtle details are powerful enough for a viewer to judge a characters past/present/future without them even knowing it. Do not ever under plan this. This was a well filmed, acted and edited short. Clearly you have an excellent grasp of the craft for your age.

When he was looking through the binoculars the thing I thought of immediately was “riissseeee anddd shineeee”

Is this your first short film? This is amazing. Good location, awesome music especially in the end when the whistling gets merged with the buzzing piercing sound. Convincing acting. Very intriguing! Well done. Looking forward to more shorts from you.

The distorted whistling just drove me crazy I couldn't watch the rest of this.

I like the idea,,similar too the ancient Australian aborigines concept of "the walkabout" where a young teen ,ready to be a man ,has to walk in the desert until he meets himself..its not meant to be scary though,its a learning ritual....anyway nice sound effects ,I also liked the open ending.was he meeting himself spiritually?was he being followed by a demon shape shifting,or a murderous twin whom he'd met who wants his life and will then after getting comfortable in his new home starts to kill the family..maybe that could be part two....

This reminds me of David Paulides's Missing 411 series. I really enjoyed it. Good work.

I think I missed the point. the whistling got a little annoying about 1/2 way through, so I had to turn the volume off.

4 out of 5 stars. Love the simple yet chilling concept.

I thought it would be a scarier ending than this!

Thoroughly unsettling. Well done!

Fascinating and creepy at the same time, well done!

This seems very much like a kind of psychedelic trip (mushrooms most likely, but possibly acid), where the only way so escape the fear is to realize that each of them is you, and you have to choose which one to center on. Once you do, they all come back together... I've had that experience more than once on mushrooms....

Excellent! Like an M.R. James ghost story, being pursued in the dark....

Whistling sound is greatly & than title short movie The Self Amazing & brilliant 👌👌❤️❤️❤️❤️

The whistle song was beautiful

Oh man!This totally freaked me out! Well done! Like Invasion of the body snatchers or They Wait! Really liked this!

Fantastic film!! Loved it. No jump scares or cheesy special effects. I love it when a film is exquisite in it's simplicity. Thank you. Look forward to seeing more of your films.

Sound design is amazing.

He should have offered part of his sandwich to that little bird.

One thing we all for sure, we could never run away from.ourselves, I admired whoever made this movie, it's very realistic with a small message, "We got to deal with ourselves, no way around it." 😆 lol

I've never ran from myself, so this had no meaning to me.

i genuinely like the concept of the film, but the sound effects are quite overpowering and the camera is very shaky throughout the whole thing. besides that, this is very good! i encourage you to make more and am looking forward to what is to come!

Appreciated you're one man army performance.

Great job!!! 👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾

loved it...visually beautiful...the sound was awesome, the story has great originality and it really creeped me the frig out!

This poor guy, looks so sweet, I just want to hug him. Why did this get so many down ratings? People are dumb. They would rather watch another meaningless flick with the monster identical to all the others, with the big black eyes and deafening shrieks. Nobody gets implied horror or atmosphere. Folks, he went out for a nice hike when he sees an exactly identical twin following him, no matter where he goes he can't get away from it and now he's lost in the woods at night with the doppelganger.

Love doppelganger stories this was gnarly good Thanku man

This is unique and the execution of the concept is great! Thanks for the upload!

Interesting, and well played out. I'm sure everyone is wanting to know what really happened when the two identical "selves" finally met and made contact!!! ...The nature of the film suggests that their meeting wasn't exactly a joyous reunion!!!

why he gone so deep in this thick forest alone???

Great idea; well executed.

Nice fresh grass,good for grazing!

Finaly he realized how scary he looks like😂

People should really be nicer to themselves however when running away from ones problems the difficulty with that is wherever we go there we are.

Like Larson did a fairly good job on this short... concept is good...the wooded area scenario worked well...loved the eerie whistling tune throughout the film...ending leaves the viewer questioning meaning behind the character and his apparent doppelganger ...which leaves the mystery of it all...is it his imagination...his self conscious,an evil entity of the forest mimicking his presence,...that should be left to the viewer...good job.👍

i enjoyed it...beautifully filmed!

A nice allegory on the fears of self-identification. Not a bad film! If there's one thing I can critique, it's the sound effects. They really do sound like they were added in post.

Wow! That got really creepy, really fast, and I kept wondering if there was just the one, or was each sighting a different self, or was it...well, yeah. REALLY, *REALLY* GOOD!!!

I thoroughly enjoyed the film and think you should make more. A bit of constructive criticism, if I may. From a viewer/audience perspective, this film could have been cut by at least 1/3. I loved your wide-angle establishing shots, but one would have been sufficient, two absolute max. The protagonist running through the woods was, again, excellent. However, I felt that it went on a little longer than absolutely necessary. You run the risk of losing your audience if a tense chase scene goes on for too long. Overall, great concept and well done.

instead of running away,he should face them

People need understand the difference between horror and a thriller.

Conceptually very good... The shaky camera work was a distraction along with the overblown audio effects with the "normal" activities, footsteps, handling and and zipping his backpack etc. Thanks, Vapp..........

Great job, whistling is creepy haha

People always suspecte this kid would one day hurt himself. LOL. I enjoyed it.

Imagine all those wealthy, retired, and lonely boomers going to Bali or the South of France or to Italy or to an ashram in India or some other place just to “find themselves,” and this happens to them.

most of us are running from our selves

Also it had a cool conflict. It was character vs self. His wiser and or future self seemed disappointed in himself from the past. He regretted something like decisions or events that had occurred previously in his life. (Thats just my theory by the way.)

I hate it when I go for a walk and this sort of thing happens. My usual response is to get a big stick, chase down my alter ego and beat the crap out of myself.

This is a masterpiece!!👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼 Great job!!👌🏼👊🏼

Amazing,on point I am running 💨 from my self

Good effort.Quite professional. Do some more.

Camera work was shoddy but I still found myself engaged in the film! Well done!

i love this short filmmmmmmm,thank you for making this film

Well, that tune is stuck in my head now. 😂

Was hoping that the doppelgänger would have absorbed him at the end like in John Carpenter’s The Thing..

Wherever you go, there you are.

As for the technical side of the movie, it's very well executed in every way! And as for its contend, supposedly one cannot occupy the same space with oneself in the same timeline and dimension...

Really creepy and interesting short horror movie. Really intense atmosphere, great locations and camera work. Keep up the good work, you are talented. I will definitely check out your other videos.

Also this vid is me chasing after guys who don’t like me

Amazing direction, idea, and composing! I would definitely recommend playing around with the audio. For instance: the volume, what is used to create a sound, etc. Besides that, it was phenomenal!

Always like a new concept.

I don't leave comments much but I really just want to tell you guys this is amazing. I know it has been like three years but you never know when a word of encouragement may be just what someone needs. I hope you guys are doing well and following your dreams. You are so talented. This film is better in so many ways than the stuff on hbo and the big screen. No matter where your lives may lead, no one can ever take this away from you.

First rules of hiking in woods never go alone always wear long sleeves and jeans always carry a gun or knife for protection last but not least stay the hell of the woods

The short horror films says: never go into the woods.

I love the concept, and the sound really enhanced the mood. Amazing work for your first film guys, I'm a pretty new filmmaker too and like you guys had in this, I prefer working with a minimal crew, usually just myself or one other person, so I know how much it takes to pull something together without much in the way of help. For a two man operation, you handled your topic excellently. My only advice, is if you move further back and zoom the lens a bit, it will give your future shots a slightly more cinematic quality - just a tip my professor gave me that I have yet to see written anywhere else so I thought I'd share. I look forward to seeing more from you!

Moral of the story...don't drop acid and go tripping in the woods alone

One of theeeeeee nice short movie.. hv a fantastic idea.. nice work of director and beautiful axpression of the actor. Love from Pakistan. Dr raza

Interesting idea. Why run away? It would be interesting to meet one's self, wouldn't it?