Title: Frederick (Short)
MPAA Rating: Not Rated
Director: Traci Hays
Starring: James Morrison, Josh Mann, Lexi Johnson
Runtime: 16 mins

What It Is: Frederick (Mann) is an artist. An enigmatic and strange one at that. When he becomes the prime suspect in a crime, the disappearance of a young woman as well as the murder of several others. When his disturbing portraits wrought even more suspicion a detective (Morrison) named Marks is bound and determined to investigate the mysterious painter and his peculiar demeanor. Is Frederick a sociopath, a psychopath perhaps both? Neither? Something even worse? Well, you’ll just have to watch and see.

What We Think: There’s a great darkness to this short. I think it’s one that’s perfectly placed. The short is rather light in the dialogue department but it is a really good short. Josh Mann has a creepy crawly kind of charisma. One that is expertly “manned” by Hays’ eye. When looking at this we can gather that there is certainly something wrong with Frederick. That is something Mann makes clear in his performance, and with his writing. Speaking of his writing, I quite enjoyed that! Even if, as I said the dialogue was kept minimalist.

Our Grade: B-, A good short and one of my personal favorites coming out of the San Diego International Film Festival. Alongside the wonderful Annie Waits. I’ll be watching out for whatever Josh Mann writes next! And if he’d like to send it to us following his reading of this, well, hit us up on the tweets! There’s literally a button on the upper right corner. I can recommend you check this out wherever and whenever possible. It’s a very scary time indeed! One that’ll have you wondering just how closely artists watch their subjects, and how seriously they take their art.