Apocalyptic predictions have always frightened humanity, generating over time more catastrophic scenarios that have fuelled the most terrible nightmares. But there are, however, certain perspectives on the apocalypse that manage to amuse or to catch us through the hilarious situations or emotional intensity generated by the imminence of total disaster. ‘Roommate Wanted for the End of the World‘ is a project that fits into this light strategy of recycling the great theme of eschatological visions, proposing a peculiar dramedy, with absurd inflexion, that deviates from the general trend of similar films. Thus, the premise of this short film comes out of the sphere of destructive sentiments, presenting two bizarre protagonists united by the failure to live a far too ordinary life trying to find in the universal catastrophe a new chance to rebuild their future. The result proposed by director Stephen Osborne is therefore an agreeable combination of classic apocalyptic films and productions such as ‘Movie 43′ which, although based on a fairly predictable narrative pattern, succeeds in capturing the attention of several audiences.
Convinced that the apocalypse will happen very soon, Harry is looking for a female partner to cohabit with in the same bunker. Although his requirements for finding the perfect woman are quite hilarious, April, a young cashier with a boring existence, seems interested in Harry’s weird proposal. But the encounter between these two people, terrorized by their miserable life, will succeed in giving them a new purpose to their destiny.
Being a homogeneous combination of romantic comedy, absurd film and apocalyptic drama, Stephen Osborne’s project exceeds the limited value of a conventional dramedy, despite its somewhat predictable ending, customizing a pair of bizarre and catchy protagonists who altogether embody a metaphor of a dying world because of the absence of true emotions. The existential crisis of the two characters whose goal is to wait for the total extinction of humanity is also a defining feature of the typology of the modern individual bored with the excess of a world that has replaced the true emotional value with the principles of sterile consumerism. Obviously, such interpretations do not make harder the reception of this funny and cynical short film whose almost impeccable cinematographic materialization can satisfy a lot of categories of taste. ‘Roommate Wanted for the End of the World’ is therefore both a romantic comedy and a tragic or absurd short film that tells us about the existential crisis of the modern individual that will make you laugh with the same intensity that will make you pay more attention to the world around you, in order to see that no apocalypse can be more frightening than the absence of love. Even if this love is that of a couple of odd social outcasts.
