{"id":48956,"date":"2025-08-03T00:01:35","date_gmt":"2025-08-03T04:01:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/?p=48956"},"modified":"2025-07-31T00:47:50","modified_gmt":"2025-07-31T04:47:50","slug":"the-first-short-2024","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/2025\/08\/03\/the-first-short-2024\/","title":{"rendered":"The First (short) (2024)\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"

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A young man is taken to a house as family tradition, so that he can have his \u201cfirst\u201d of something.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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Written and directed by Susan Ruth, this short film has a long set up for something that will most likely not be what the viewer expects. Here, tension is built through expectations, and the viewer will think they know where the story is going, but not so fast… The writing and direction here are solid with some great ideas and flare for the dramatic presented in all their glory here. The film may be a short, but it has enough to say that it feels like a fully formed story, one that didn\u2019t need a minute less or a minute more to be told perfectly.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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The cast here is fantastic with Ethan Carlos Cameron in the lead of Michael, the young man whose father took him to this mysterious one, one where generations of men have been taken before. His performance conveys innocence, curiosity, and a touch of bravery in the face of the unknown. His work grounds the film and helps make it what it is. Joining him in a powerful performance is Tiffany Cornwell as She, a mysterious woman who has a lot to teach. Her ways, her physical performance as much as the emotions she invests in it are just right, filled with that extra little thing that makes viewers keep their eyes on her from the moment she shows up on screen. The rest of the cast gets a lot less screen time and still all give good performances.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The look of the film here is a mix between a lush darkness and a spooky one. There is something in each image on the screen to pull you in and somewhere between the location and the costumes, the cinematography by director of photography Jake Macpherson who does fantastic work with the lighting with his framing for each shot. This is carefully planned work that shows in the resulting film. The editing by Bryan Wilson gives the images the room they need to make an impact, especially in terms of setting up the mood and later in how the images are given the time to have an impact without lingering too long. <\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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Without giving too much away, the film also has some fantastic special effects by Cindy Knyrim, Roy Knyrim, Cheryl Holtzman, and Eric Fox. The work is ooey gooey goodness and the red stuff is fantastic. While one element wasn\u2019t perfect, it\u2019s soon forgotten when the denouement comes with a size of the red stuff. This is not a special effects story, but it\u2019s also not a film that is afraid to go there and show the goods. The work done here shows beautifully well on screen.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The First is a fantastic short film done with a ton of talent behind and in front of the camera. It is a short film that reminds you why watching short films is so important. It\u2019s a solid calling card for writer-director Ruth. Oh and keep an eye out for a splatter master\u2019s cameo.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A young man is taken to a house as family tradition, so that he can have his \u201cfirst\u201d of something.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[477,937],"class_list":["post-48956","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-movie-reviews","tag-horror","tag-short"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48956","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48956"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48956\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":48957,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48956\/revisions\/48957"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48956"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48956"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48956"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}