I have watched a few films from Tony Ukpo and along with the reoccurring motif of not having a good sound person on his crew, another one is that he makes promos or fan-films using well known series or characters. So for example I have previously seen him make a Doctor Who fan film with a female Doctor, and an alt-universe spin-off from the film Looper. I have no reason to know his motives but a cynical viewer could suggest that he does this to try and get hype or hits which will then give exposure to his other work.
Well, whatever his motivations I do not think I have seen a lazier example than Strange Peaks – a short film inspired by David Lynch's Twin Peaks. The action here see two characters moving around each other, dancing awkwardly in an odd place, making coffee and other normal events given an odd air thanks to the use of the track 'Audrey's Dance'. Indeed without this track there is not much to talk about because the film relies so very heavily on the fact that fans of Twin Peaks will be told how to feel when they hear that music – and I say this as one of those fans.
Visually the film is nice apart from awkward edits around a coffee percolator, but the heart of the film comes from the fact that someone else did something much better with a piece of music and if you get anything from this short it will probably be something that you brought to it due to that, not that the film itself did. I have actually liked some aspects of Ukpo's other films which lift other films/shows but claim no infringement due to not being for profile; however in the case of Strange Peaks it is only the music that does anything and, beyond being visually clean and professional, it is a fairly pointless film.
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