The Rickety Man (16:39)
Cameron Gallagher; Film Shortage; IMDb; Vimeo; YouTube

This seems to be set in England, sometime around the Victorian era, maybe? I'm not sure. But it's kind of a folk/gothic horror story. A man named Edward has recently lost his wife, and throughout the film is writing a letter to some relative. Meanwhile, he's having trouble dealing with the strange behavior of his two children, James and Mathilda. Both of them are behaving in very creepy ways, though we don't see much of James. Mathilda is really the standout character in the short. I don't want to spoil anything about it, but I will say it's a very atmospheric film. The title is a bit odd, because the "Rickety Man" is apparently some sort of supernatural creature the children have met in the woods, but while we occasionally hear a bit of him talking, we never actually see him (as far as I could tell). So... I don't know, I can't really say I understood the film, which is why I don't rate it higher than I did. But at least I liked the girl's performance, and the whole feel of the film. I just wish I had more of an idea of what the hell is going on.