Virus

The title has many meanings in connection with computers, relationships, life itself. Simon Hynd remains mysterious, creating a mood of impending horror. No words are spoken as the camera pans across the clinical architecture of a modern office building after hours.

A man works late. He rings his girlfriend. No reply. He receives an email, containing an attachment, showing her in a dimly lit room, speaking to him without sound, as if this is real time, and there is someone else in the room, behind her, like an alien shadow. Fear leaks into consciousness. The man is trapped. The girl can't come to the phone.

With sharpened editing skills, Hynd cuts his film to impose an atmosphere of unease, so that a computer screen contains evidence of something terrible abroad and the quietness of the office feels threatening, as if absence of noise is an imitation of death.