Director Alex Ferrari sent me a copy of his short film Red Princess Blues in September 2010. In all my kindness, I waited an inexcusable eight months to review his movie. What can I say? I’ve been busy. And the movie requires a massive time commitment. It is, after all, 11 minutes long.

First off, for the record, I’m not big on short films. While a necessary part of the filmmaker’s journey to a full-length feature, I struggle to review movies that are meant to be an accelerated version of a small story, or, in Red Princess Blues‘ case, a snapshot of something larger but not yet realized. I’m a man who thrives on lengthy character development, nuance and epic story arcs, which is why I even have trouble watching television shows that aren’t serialized.

Needless to say, it’s challenging to review short films that simply don’t have room for that elements. With that said…

Red Princess Blues is a decent movie. Shot over two days for a budget of only $10,000, the look and feel of the production, including the special effects, are very good, the atmosphere appropriately sleazy.

Oh, I forgot to say what the hell the movie is about:

In this twisted modern day fairy tale ZOE, a young teenage girl, is lured into an after hours carnival tent by the sleazy rock n roll carnie RIMO, she then gets more then she bargained for. It is up to the mysterious PRINCESS, the star of the new knife show at ROSCOE’S FREAK SHOW & CARNIVAL to pull her out of the wolf’s den that she has fallen into.

Back to the review. The film features performances by Richard Tyson (who I still associate with my guilty pleasure film Kindergarten Cop, in which he played the villain) Rachel Grant (Die Another Day), and narrative by Academy Award Nominee Robert Forster (Jackie Brown). The acting is pretty good but not great, though there isn’t a lot of dialogue on which to judge their performances.

Red Princess Blues is primarily a showcase for Ferrari to experiment with fight sequences in preparation for a full length version he plans to create. The editing is solid and given a larger budget and some more preparation, you can see the potential in Ferrari’s vision.

My main issue with the short film version, unfortunately, is that it’s hard to grasp what his ultimate vision is. It’s not properly established that Zoe (Tabitha Morella) is just a kid who has wandered into the wrong tent, as she could just as easily be waiting outside to get picked up to be pimped out. And when the oddly innocent girl realizes she’s in trouble, the unrelated “Princess” (Rachel Grant) decides to beat up a bunch of guys. Is the movie set in the future? The past? An alternate reality? It’s not really clear.

But there I go, reviewing it like it’s a full-length feature. I just can’t help it.

Red Princess Blues has its merits and it has its shortcomings. As Ferrari looks to turn his story into a feature film, the main challenge he’ll have to overcome is to cement the theme of the story and carry it consistently throughout. The movie description labels it as a “modern day fairy tale”, but I had trouble relating the picture to “Little Red Riding Hood”. He’ll need to make that connection more apparent, and more intriguing. Furthermore, he’ll have to decide how to make the movie different from the thousands of other “seedy world” thrillers that are out there.

I look forward to what he comes up with.

Watch the trailer or buy the movie at RedPrincessBlues.com.