As the famous proverb says: “Anger is just one letter short of danger”, this particularly true for everyone who makes Shelby Lattimore angry. The 2018 horror short film ‘Heartless’ is based on Edgar Allan Poe’s ‘Tell-Tale Heart’. The film was written and directed by Kevin Sluder. Heartless featured a very talented cast with Stacy Snyder playing Shelby Lattimore, while Joanna Sotomura played Clare McKaskil, meanwhile, Matt Mercer played Deano Ross, Brandt Childress was played by Blaine Vedros and Tripp Flynn was played by Ron Morehouse. Out of some brilliant acting performances by the cast, the one that stood out was Stacy Snyder’s role as Shelby Lattimore which received three nominations as the best actress in a short film.
In the opening scene the music intensifies as we see a tense Shelby Lattimore who is looking in the mirror and with shaky hands, attempts to apply the lipstick but immediately halts this operation to talk to herself and as she is saying ‘stop it’ to herself, repeatedly, she is interrupted by someone who tells her that they (Brandit, Tripp, and Deano) are waiting for her. Realizing that it’s show time, we see Shelby Lattimore calmly reapplying lipstick and saying the words “They are ready for you” to the mirror. She then enters the meeting room with a smile on her face. Brandit, Tripp, and Deano are joking around when Shelby enters the meeting room, it is at this point that Deano Ross points out to his colleagues that Shelby is stepping in for Claire McKaskill (Joanna Sotomura) who for some unknown reason is a no-show, Deano Ross inquires about the mysterious disappearance of Claire from Shelby who jokingly says that she hasn’t seen her apart from last night when they were together preparing the current presentation, satisfied by the answer Deano plays a joke on Shelby, telling her that she can get started on the presentation as soon as she gets him coffee, this completely rattles Shelby who doesn’t know how to react, Deano admits that he is just joking and all three men in the room have a laugh about the event that just occurred, after which Deano gives the cue to Shelby to start the presentation. Looking at the presentation Shelby has a flashback of last night when she was preparing for this very presentation with Claire, who was unhappy with the presentation. She attempted to replace Shelby which made Shelby, very angry and things do not pan out well for those who do that, as is a theme of the film.
Overall the horror film is short with a standout acting performance by Stacy Snyder who was able to become Shelby Lattimore, Shelby is a complex character wrapped up in a range of emotions from being extremely nervous to become a raging psychopath, these emotions of Shelby were portrayed brilliantly by Stacy Snyder. Another notable performance worthy of praise was that of Matt Mercer for playing Deano Ross. The short film was an easy watch thus I would recommend everyone to watch this.
‘Heartless’ is the directorial debut short film from the award-winning production company Sunshine Boy Productions. It will screen at NYC Horror Film Festival on Friday, Nov 30th at 9:30 PM EST, at Cinepolis Chelsea on 260 W 23rd St, New York, NY 10011.
Winners of Best Screenplay-Short and Best Ensemble Cast-Short at the FilmQuest Film Festival, Heartless was also awarded Best Makeup at NOLA Horror Film Festival, Best Special FX at HorrorHaus Film Festival and Best Narrative Drive Award at Women in Horror.
Follow Executive Producer Jennifer Sluder: @JenSluder , Director Kevin Sluder @Kevin_Sluder, @HeartlessMovie_, Sunshine Boy Production Company @SunshineBoyProd on Twitter.
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Movie Rating: 5 stars.
Movie Rating Guide
1 Star = Unwatchable
2 Stars = Cannot Recommend
3 Stars = Great for the Fans
4 Stars = A Solid Movie
5 Stars = Must Own (DVD/Stream Download)
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