HERMAN— 4 STARS

Short films have their inherent boundaries where it can be difficult to insert satisfying action. Precious time spent on necessary build-up or character establishment takes away from the heat of cinematic explosion. How fast can a solid sequence come-and-go with the flash of a firework and still burn the viewer’s resolve and memories? With bracing immediacy from The Splatter Brothers, Herman cunningly proves such an effect can be done in a tight amount of time. How do you ask? They do it with a reminder.

LESSON #1: JUST HOW FAST A HORRIBLE MOMENT HAPPENS– Think about it for a minute and ask yourself. How quickly does a horrible moment happen and last? Car accidents can occur in a matter of seconds. You could blink and miss it. Blindsiding assaults or muggings can hit-and-run in under a minute. You could be taken out before you even know what hit you. 

Coincidentally, some of the only places these kinds of confrontations are drawn out for drama’s sake is in movies and television. Scripts will sometimes needlessly stretch seconds into minutes and minutes into hours. Movies will freeze time with some showy standoff where a perpetrator or their target will get a monologue of extra dialogue to amplify a culminating moment before a clash. Proverbial battle lines are drawn. In real life, that ain’t happening. Both the attacker and the victim are trying to get out of that situation as soon as possible.

Easing in, Herman introduces the teenager Dion, played by Terry Lee Ricks III from The Splatter Brothers’ poignant 2019 short film Loyalty. He’s begrudgingly talking to his mother over the phone while trying to enjoy his video game. She doesn’t want to be late for a family dinner, and he doesn’t want to do the chores that come with her arrival.

Meanwhile, Herman shifts to a nighttime Chicago street where a woman (Angela Roberts) is walking home. Now working with the suddenness of seconds in mind, the musical score arrives with a jarring bang as a ground-level shot reveals a dark pair of men’s boots stepping onto the sidewalk behind her. Each step of his suggests a large, ominous figure. Each step of hers becomes a little faster to get away from it. Cutting through an alley, she bumps into a horrific masked man (Darcy Collis lead actor Christian Dior Creasy) with a knife at the same time Dion enters to take out the trash and become a witness. 

LESSON #2: RUN!-- Seeing the attack, Dion shouts out one holler of “Hey, what’s going on over there?” and that’s it. A knife is hurled at him and the sprint is on. At that moment, Herman lights its firework and becomes the short film equivalent of that popular viral video looping sound clip of “Run” by Awolnation. The thrills of escape scripted and choreographed by the successful Chicago-based filmmaking team of Ira Childs and Lionel L. Chapman take over, and it is a damn fun sprint.

For this ensuing chase, Herman fluidly encircles tight quarters and short distances with very good framing, perspective choices, and shifts of shooting distances. Cinematographer Tracy J. Gardner takes his camera effortlessly through and around stairways, outdoor decks, basement corridors, and exterior gangways like a wraith on wires. Gardner doubles down his creative contributions composing the short film’s unnerving score that is mixed with crisp foley work to capture the clutter blocking our main teen’s potential path to safety.

LESSON #3: CREATING SUSPENSE WITH A SENSE OF URGENCY– Like the GTFO fight-or-flight speed and freak happenstance of real-life, Herman delivers precisely that exhilarating sense of urgency. There are no shouted demands from a pursuing criminal that pretend to describe motive or what the encounter all means. Likewise, no wimpy and waffling “Wait a second. Can we talk about this?” pleads are attempted in return. Herman stays a mystery through the very end. 

Quite simply, a silent and deadly force is coming after someone, and that person needs to get away with their life by any means necessary. Sure, a hunt like Herman could go longer, but the engagement is simple, carnal, and effective as a short film. Violent death or miraculous rescue can happen in a heartbeat. In turn, The Splatter Brothers cleverly clock and decide how long and whose hearts get to keep on beating.