Dead Hearts: Movie Analysis

The 2014 short film Dead Hearts is the perfect movie to watch to close out this Halloween season. Stephen Martin wrote and directed the fantasy/horror short film as an ode to his wife, to whom he had just proposed at the time of the script’s development. He combined elements of whimsical timeless love, Kung Fu fighting sequences, and death scenes. As Stephen Martin and his wife both love horror and fantasy, he combined the two genres to make this award-winning Halloween film. The fifteen-minute movie takes place over 70 years. It begins by introducing 7-year-old Milton Mulberry as a child from a long line of morticians. Milton studies and works with dead bodies, which differentiates him from his classmates and makes him an outcast. Milton has a crush on his classmate, Lola, who saves him from classmate bullies, …show more content…
Even to someone unfamiliar with camera work or audio in film, one can easily pick up on the sharp sound effects, and appreciate the beauty and art in all the shots. In a Kung Fu fighting scene, the sounds are sharp and well timed, and elaborate on the action. The scenes that portray Milton and Lola around the dead bodies are shot from interesting angles, such as looking up under Milton’s chin, and from far back to see how small Milton and Lola are in comparison to the adult dead bodies. It is fitting that Milton’s home looks like a haunted house, with its wooden floors, long hallways, and painted portraits of dead family members on the walls. Dead Hearts was accepted into 155 film festivals, and won 45 awards. It qualified for the Oscars when it won Best Live Action Short at the St. Louis International Film Festival, and also won Best Horror Comedy at Screamfest LA, Best Short NYC Horror, Best Short Monster Fest, and the Audience Choice Award Toronto After