Twilight Zone was one of my favorite television shows as a kid. The show was creepy yet insightful. As a result, I find myself drawn to stories about the human condition and what we do when pushed to the extreme. One such tale is director Dastan Khalili and screenwriter Damion Stephens’ short thriller, Day9.
J.D. Dobroth (Charles Maze), a rich, eccentric millionaire, has gathered a ragtag group of acquaintances and strangers for an unusual dig in the desert. The crew (Johanna Watts, Eric McIntire, Kelcey Watson, and Will Lupardus) is guaranteed to split a multi-million dollar purse for digging through nine humiliating days in the desert. The upside is that they will get paid whether or not they dig up what Dobroth is looking for.
Unfortunately, the downside is Dobroth is an a$$hole. The working conditions are brutal. The food and water are rationed into sparse portions and taken at breaks based on Dobroth’s description. In the end, whoever remains through day nine, will split the bounty.

“…guaranteed to split a multi-million dollar purse for digging through nine humiliating days in the desert.”
Day9 presents a straightforward set of mind games after the other. All the crew knows is that the offer is real because others have gone before them. They’ve been told that some have received their reward, while others who couldn’t endure Dobroth’s “torture” quit just minutes before completing the task and thus walk away with nothing.
The test our crew faces is how much of the desert heat they can endure digging for what seems like nothing and how much of their insane benefactor’s abusive orders and commands they are willing to put up with for a guaranteed payoff. Just as it seems Dobroth is trying to create dissension within the ranks, the workers decide to band together instead.
First, Day9 is simply a well-written tale that falls right in the Twilight Zone category. Without telling us the theme of the short, Stephen reveals the primary conflict in the stories the crew tells one another, set in contrast to Dobroth brutal demeanor.
The desert is the perfect location for short films for any indie filmmaker with few resources to make a movie. Khalili stages and blocks his actors beautifully while taking advantage of the rich blue desert sky. Ultimately, it’s the storytelling prowess that shines in both audience engagement and pacing. Overall, Day9 is a wonderfully constructed short.
Day9 premieres at the Los Angeles Shorts International Film Festival.