The after hours playground of the carnival’s true freaks becomes a dangerous place for one young girl in writer/director Alex Ferrari’s short “Red Princess Blues.” The film opens as tarted up ingénue, (Tabitha Morella) catches the eye of a perverted, much older carnie (Richard Tyson), and follows him into the carnies’ den. Though she seems at first willing to go along with the sweaty, dirty man’s advances, his attempts to ply her with liquor and her quickly developing better judgment, spur in her a futile desire to get away. It seems the story will end badly for the foolish girl until a mysterious woman appears. Several characteristics of the film draw parallels to the archetypal (read: not sanitized) fairy tales commonly written about by author Isabel Allende (Women Who Run With the Wolves). The narration-reminiscent of The Twilight Zone-frequent references to fairy tales, and pervasive use of archetypal characters all give the film an older, wiser feel than the subject matter suggests. There is the naive young girl, duped into listening to a dangerous man. There is the more experienced female, the personification of womanly intuition and wisdom, who comes to the girl’s rescue, but only once she accepts that she is truly in danger. Even the film’s title, “Red Princess Blues,” lends itself to this modern fairytale feel. This might seem a complex analyzation for an indie, action short, but the essence and imagery of Ferrari’s film leaves one feeling that there must be more to this story.
Polished effects and eerie setting give the film a finished glow that many indies lack, and the fluid action sequences make it easy to see why “Red Princess Blues” has been getting it’s fair share of buzz on the festival circuit.
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