Making Magic - Jason Salazar & Drew Campbell

There's no scarier words to read when you pick your genre for the 48 Hour Film Project than MUSICAL. It's sunk many crews over the years, and lead to some truly awful. Awful. I mean, Species 2-level awful films. When they go well, it's a good thing, and when they're 100% awesome, that's flat-out rad! 

​Beyond Forever Studios managed to make the most entertaining and balls-out funny film of San Jose's 2016 48 Hour Film Project with Making Magic, a fairly simple musical that features only 4 actors. The story is a classic: a woman's husband has left her for a younger woman (a Cheerleader!) and her best friend comes up with the idea of summoning a demon to deal with the bastard. Problem - two do not a summoning circle make, and thus they invite a third to complete it. She's not sure, but things go forward, and eventually, they summon a demon. You know, the demons you want, you can't get, and the ones you can get, you don't want. Same as it ever was...

​The songs are great, and delivered with absolute gusto, especially by Casey Semple. She's brilliant, and gives everything she has to just about every frame. She took fantastic material and turned it into something even better. Drew Campbell as our demon is pretty freakin' hilarious. His delivery is wonderful, and though I don't think we ever see Semple and Campbell in the same shot, but when they're 'interacting' it's the peak of the film. 

Overall, this is probably the most entertaining film I've ever seen come out of a 48 Hour Film Project.