There's a certain joy that unfolds when a filmmaker actually "gets it."

Dave Reda gets it.

If there's one thing that's frustrating about reviewing short films, it's that far too many filmmakers try to go beyond the limits of what they can create on a low-budget or in the short span of a few minutes of screen time. It's painful to watch a filmmaker with unrealistic expectations of what can and cannot be accomplished within the framework of a short film. This is not to imply, in any way, that a short film is somehow "limited" but simply to acknowledge that making a short film is vastly different from the making of a full-length feature film.

Again, Dave Reda gets its.

Wrapping this 7-minute short aroun2d a campy horror song of the same name by the band Ludo, Reda has created an irreverent, funny, entertaining and delightfully original horror comedy short with appropriately broad and histrionic performances from his entire ensemble cast, which includes himself along with Kate Melia, Peter Redman, Karl Schweitzer and Daniel P. Wilson.

Already popular on the indie and horror fest circuit, Horror of Our Love has picked up awards at Dances With Films, Park City Film Music  Festival, A Nightmare to Remember and, most recently, received the 4th place prize at Oakland, California's Brainwash Movie Festival.

Billed by writer/director Reda as a "horror romantic comedy short film that twists your normal love story's back until it breaks."

Indeed.

One of the best things about catching a low-budget short is being able to appreciate the varied artistic gifts of those involved in the film's production. When you go to a film starring Julia Roberts, you can be damn sure you won't read the closing credits and learn that Roberts contributed the film's production design or costuming or editing or anything beyond, potentially, serving as a producer.

A short film is different.

Here, virtually everyone in the cast carries different roles and it's this kind of intertwining that creates such a spirited and consistent vibe within the film. Melia, for example, is responsible for the film's effective production design while kudos also go to Nathan Seifert and Phil Grasso for their inventive camera work and, of course, the band Ludo.