Its 10:31 pm
dark
A little while I was introduced to Gerry Z. Dragun through a short film we reviewed here to great acclaim called “My Wizard Dad“. It was wonderful and charming film and done quite well by student at Florida State University’s Film School. But then we heard nothing from Gerry ….until today.
The cheetah was on Twitter when he got a message from Gerry about a new short that he had completed called “Belton County” which was done by another group of students from FSU. We decided to needed to check out this new short film that was co-written by Nicholas Markart and Scott Marino and directed by Markart.
The film opens up with an bang as the camera pans a beach and comes across a most gruesome killing.
We then meet Teddy and Franny a middle aged couple who are discussing the serial killer who is on the loose. Franny has an investigative eye as her late dad was the sheriff and so she decides to hunt this killer on her own……
With a synopis like that,you think we would be getting into a feature film much less a 13 minute long short film and by the end of the “Belton County”,you will be wishing you had.
Not only is the story way too ambitious for a short film,there is no room for any dark comedy,this film is far too violent for any laughs. I’m saying this as a positive because I was hooked instantly after the first minute. To be honest I was looking for a cliffhanger because I knew that Markart wouldn’t be able to bring this film to a satisfying end and I was right. There just isn’t enough time at only 13 minutes to do “Belton County” justice.
But this shouldn’t scare you away from the top notch performances from Rebecca Blair,Gerry and Travis Herndon who give terrific turns as Franny,Bob Corker and Sheriff Melvin Donahue.
What I do hope for is that Marino and Markart write a feature length script and one day come and take us back to “Belton County” and us a proper mystery.
“Belton County” is 13 minutes and should be considered a hard “R” for language and graphic violence.
The cheetah and I gave this a big thumbs up. Nothing wrong with going big!
The Inner Circle 
This sounds interesting I shall watch it later Michael 🙂 In case you are interested (and I let Pam from All Things Thriller in on this too) me and blogger Cindy are doing a collaborative blog entry on our favorite Robert Altman films and If you are interested in reading it, here is a link to the blog entry
https://cindybruchman.com/2019/08/13/l13fc-director-robert-altman/
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That was a good little short. Definitely a lot in too little time. Natural, believable acting.
I had to laugh when I saw the married couple in bed together, though. If I was in a bed that small with my husband, we’d basically be divorced within 24 hours, lol !!
Thanks for the clip. Hopefully more’s coming from Gerry!
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