- Directed by Jonathan Cuartas
- Written by Jonathan Cuartas
- Stars Mark Ashworth, Thomas Alvarez, Amy Hoerler, Karen Chimato
- Run Time: 16:26
- Watch it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LBitgz6BXQY
Synopsis
A man is driving at night. He picks up a man along the side of the road but instead of dropping the man off as planned, he cuts his throat. Dwight talks to his sister about letting the victim call home first. Then they feed their little brother Oscar.
Next, the sister goes out for her victim, but she comes back severely injured. He tells her they can’t do this anymore. “Mother left us responsible for him.” The sister decides to let Oscar eat her.
Eventually, Dwight has had enough of this life…
Commentary
I go into these shorts “blind” so as not to spoil myself as to any twists, so I had no idea what this was before watching it. I noticed almost immediately that it’s an identical plot to “My Heart Can’t Beat Unless You Tell It To” (2020). It turns out that the director/writer of that also did this first and the full-length version a few years later. Then I checked the original date and figured out that this came first, back in 2017 (Alter shows this as a new release, so that was confusing).
Still, it’s well shot and very atmospheric. It’s good in itself, but the “long” version explores the idea better.