COMMUNITY SERVICE | Omeleto Horror

A drunk man gets community service.
COMMUNITY SERVICE is used with permission from Grayson Tyler Johnson. Learn more at monocularfilms....
Dan went to a party and got wasted, and then had a run-in with the law. Charged with public intoxication, he must now do community service to get it taken off his record and chooses to deliver meals to home-bound people for a few weeks.
The last person on his service route in Brooklyn is a woman named Shecky. Shecky is off-putting: loud, nosy, abrasive and plain old weird. She lives in a home full of figurines and stuffed animals; she has no filter in what she talks about. And she insists Dan stay with her until she falls asleep, promising even to pay him extra money. As the weeks wear on, Shecky becomes increasingly annoying and demanding. But just when Dan reaches the end of his service, she becomes something else altogether.
Written and directed by Grayson Tyler Johnson, this odd and riveting psychological horror short is a journey into the unexpected eccentricity that we find in the course of everyday life, whether it's the odd neighbor or the strange objects in the junk store. With deliberate pacing and confident writing, it chronicles the collision of one man with a very odd woman, making for an unexpected excursion into a heart of darkness.
The sly, witty storytelling finds casual humor in the neglect, flippancy and indifference of people, starting from the lawyer assigning Dan his community service. The visuals seem naturalistic, even workmanlike -- except for a fixation on slightly surreal details, whether it's an odd gargoyle on a railing or the slightly queasy close-ups on the industrial assembly-line spaghetti being made.
This visual attention to the oddball darkens into a more sinister aspect as the relationship between Shecky and Dan progresses. At first, Dan finds Shecky off-putting, but each encounter reveals Shecky's growing neediness and fixation on Dan, which he attempts to dodge. Actor Dan O'Brian is a sympathetic, relatable presence, but as Shecky, actor Angela Muto commands the screen in a no-holds-barred performance that is funny, compelling and menacing all at once. Muto is not afraid to be abrasive, screechy or even repulsive, and it could be easy for the audience and Dan to write her off as an annoying kook, neglected by society and her family. But as Dan discovers, Shecky isn't powerless -- not in the least.
Though its look and feel are deceptively casual in its evocation of everyday urban life, COMMUNITY SERVICE in many ways shares much in common thematically with a filmmaker like David Lynch. Like Lynch, the film cleverly explores the idea of a dark pocket of oddness tucked away in the fabric of normality, where entering that weirdly quiet home in the neighborhood reveals a cesspool of perversions and twisted obsessions that you've been living beside for years. Though there are no monsters or gore (unless you count spaghetti) in the film, viewers could file it under horror, if only for the sheer terror it evokes at its wry, hapless ending and the unforgettable evocation of human neediness turned monstrous and insatiable.

[@BritPunk]

I didn't realise the last time I ate spaghetti would be the last time I ate spaghetti.

[@JVanProduction]

Right? I never thought I could be disgusted by spaghetti but this clearly won that prize.

[@KimberlyLetsGo]

I'm glad I'm not a spaghetti fan to begin with. Eeee

[@rachelthegreat2959]

Lol the closeup shots actually make me want spaghetti 😂

[@spitcloth]

dude you aren't kidding. jesus christ

[@marylevin9262]

Oh dear God in heaven this was gross 🤢

[@larrybyrne111]

Thanks, I won't sleep tonight. Very effective movie

[@saysyke2867]

Effective for what 😂

[@nexuselite1825]

This is very trumatic so far

[@thesnaxsquache5503]

i wish omeleto horror was actually scary like this was just about a weird woman

[@mollymelena6104]

What do you mean?? This was TERRIFYING!!! Imagine this happening in real life. She COLLECTS delivery men. This is scarier than Friday 13th because it's more plausible 😬.

[@ICONICPARIS]

Didn't see that coming

[@Cartier_specialist]

Creepy.

[@michaelfelsinger-k2i]

Oh, the horror, the horror ! I'll never be drunk on the street again. Or eat spaghetti bolognese. Excellent short film. Should be a public service announcement. Thank you, Omeleto.

[@oHas1]

You are my favourite so far 😂

[@SandraGarcia-lj3bd]

Haz caso siempre de tu intuicion , sino te gusta alguien no te quedes .

[@Yo_Gma]

For my cockadoodle mother. Lol!

[@conniehanses]

Hahaa, truly bizarre! Well done. I'll never eat spaghetti again...💙🌎

[@mcbethen5805]

God this gave me a headache I think that’s what was intended tho

[@TLundy1972]

AWESOME!!!!!! 🤣🤣🤣

[@BentleyBohemian_96]

Boredom is a good one. Coz the devil temps the idle hands.

[@nikkiekittie]

So vile

[@jennawalden8547]

Brilliant 😂😂😂😂

[@bryanryan4504]

So...what was the moral of this story??

[@BentleyBohemian_96]

Im addicted to strong drink

[@alexdrown3564]

That was kinda whack ending

[@patriciablue2739]

I’d of thought it would be enlightening but it went for the irrational fear of the mentally ill

[@nohface7565]

Or how we see the mentally ill...

[@nohface7565]

I take that back, this is pretty whack

[@BentleyBohemian_96]

Shecky is a crazy lady. But instead of just staring start conversating with her

[@vykturpagoniá]

I thought it would be like something really scary. But it turns out to just be disgusting.

[@bibolehabib]

Strange way chosen by the director to tell us to strop drinking... and eating spaghetti ! Nothing scary in here, just disgusting. I like the poor guy. I really felt for him.

[@oHas1]

You are my favourite so far 😂

[@magnus1001]

So she's a serial killer? She said he was 'her favorite so far' and she wouldn't be letting any of them go after she assaults them. Maybe he was her first. Thanks for ruining spaghetti for me! Creepy.

[@CesarGerardoPerez]

Creo que no mas pasta para mi en un año XD

[@SandraGarcia-lj3bd]

Para mi la salsa, y los muñecos .Dios mío cuando se levantó.

[@Dad.Daughter.Healing]

Loved it

[@austinaldy2150]

If you're curious how Billy Eillish looks in 35 years later, look at this woman