“I don’t know that I will ever make something else that has had that effect on people,” says Luke Barnett of his short film “The Crossing Over Express.”
“I still get messages once a week, three paragraph-deep messages from somebody who has lost someone close to them who saw it and had a cathartic experience. It’s been heavy, but it’s what we all dream of as artists. You can’t ask for more than that.”
Back in 2022, Barnett — an LA-based actor and writer then best known for his “Funny or Die” shorts — received an out-of-the-blue message with a link to a video of his late mother, who had passed away when he was just 17. In it, she told him how proud she was of him and how she wondered what he’d become.
Struck by the notion of what you would do it you could have one final conversation with a loved one, Barnett teamed with his long-time creative collaborator Tanner Thomason (the two were behind 2020’s comedy feature “Faith Based”) to make a short film based around the idea.
“The Crossing Over Express” — shot in 2024 for next-to-nothing with a group of friends over one day — became a viral hit. The film starred Barnett (also making his directorial debut) as a man who visits a travelling ‘doctor’ who can raise the dead from the back of his lorry — but only for two minutes — so he can speak to his deceased mom.
