Ok, first let me say thanks for taking the time to do such a lengthy surface scraping of my work. I commend you for taking more time to write the review than you did to watch the film, least it got some neurons firing.
Second let me say as far as your review goes the old phrase "Those that can't do, teach" comes to mind.
Next I'll get to the nitty gritty of it all. First off, we didn't have a miniscule budget, we had NO budget. Zero dollars were harmed during the making of this film. AND it was done in five half-weekends, in January/February in the freezing cold, crummy weather.
Now, I'm not gonna sit here and say that the film doesn't have flaws. It does have them, lots of em. I'd love to go back and do some redubbing or dialogue rerecording and umpteen other things, but we had a deadline to meet, so what's done is done. I broke a toe while making the film and all involved caught bronchitis during production. And not to mention 3/4 of the movie was filmed in broad daylight! I could go on about the problems during production but I won't.
What I will go into is how much of the point you missed. First the movie is one big glaring cliché ON PURPOSE! Not quite a parody, but a winking over the top acknowledgement of the staples of the horror genre. It's style over substance all the way. Watch an epsiode of Miami Vice or the movie Manhunter sometime and you'll see what I was going for. Well, maybe YOU wouldn't.
The film opens with our protagonist driving home, checking his mail' getting a package, walking past a pile of movies, watching the movie he got in the package, doing homework, working out, taking a shower, reading, ordering another movie, reading, then going to bed. The next day he gets up and does the same thing, same thing the day after. He's a lost soul, adrift in his own meaningless life. Caught in a vicious cycle. Hell the treadmill he runs on is a not so subtle metaphor for his vapid existence. However in the midst of his soulless life he opens a window into his bland little world, buying the movies he loves so much. The killer sells A SINGULAR TAPE, which you see clearly, he tracks down the buyer, watches the buyer, learns they're every move, kills them and goes back to his life. The killer also, obviously is a man of means, as he is able to fly where he wants, rent cars and rooms and take so much time to endulge in his sadistic hobby.
Also, does the protagonists boyfriend even exist or is he a figment of an obviously warped imagination? Or is he too a warped, bland, individual trying to find love with another of his own kind? That's up to the viewers imagination, just like the enigma surrounding the killer himself. You aren't supposed to care about John or his man, you're just a fly on the wall witnessing the action of a rich, bored, sadistic man.
In the end there is a ton of subtext and "in" material in the film to back up my main point, making a taut, visually grandiose cliché. John is cardboard' so is Todd, they are there to perpetuate a horror stereotype. But John was more thought out than any normal horror flick character, because there are real, sad souls out there who live like him.
The clothes, the synthesizer score, the colors, the pacing all of it is geared to be straight out of 1986. Unlike Grindhouse, which I admire greatly, this was supposed to be a satirical wink at the genre, not an all out parody of it. The jokes are there if you have half a mind to look. John wears Red in the beginning, to let you know he's dead meat. He wears white in the end, cause it looks best covered in blood. He does the things no one would do in reality because it isn't reality he lives in. He has the mind of a movie character, because to him he is a movie character. The whole film is a sly, subtle slap in the face to tradtional horror, pulsing with undertones that only skimmers or fans of current "fluffy" cinema would miss.
Let me give you a camera, take away all your money, shove you out into a heavy populated apartment complex, in broad daylight, over a couple of weekends and see you spew out something an eigth as inventive. And I'm not just talking story wise, I'm talking technical, performance and subtext wise,. I can almost garauntee it will be a mound of humorless, soulless, cardboard dreck, that looks and sounds like everyone and everything else that's out there today.
When I have more time, more money, more than a two man crew and everything I could possibly need to make a film proper you'll get a story so epic and thought provoking your head will spin. Right now, this is the best I can do.
Oh, and I've had no problems with the length of the film or the festivals so far, but thanks for your concern. And Sean S. Cunninham of Friday the 13th fame and Mike Hodges who directed Murder by Numbers loved the film, how are you doing?
Finally, I just want to say, none of what I said was meant to be offensive or mean. Negative criticism can be positive and insightful, but when it's thoughtless and spiteful I get testy. I defend to the death your right to say what you want though, now I've said my peace. Thanks for your time.
The area that y'all filmed the movie at looks familiar. 
Great Short Film I think y'all should submit it to LOGO (The Click List: Best in Short Film)! 
It's a free film viewing experience 
