Photo Credit Francis George

It's rare to see a first time director arrive on scene with all his aesthetic ducks in a row. With The Bet Michael Dunn enters just that way, with a vibrant vision in a carefully crafted and intriguing philosophical horror worth its weight in unspoken themes. Through the prism of social commentary, The Bet distills moral quandary with undercurrents of righteous violence.

As young woman (Courtney Gardner-Stavros) flips into and out of the hands of Henry (Lou Diamond) and James (Walt Turner), the two engaged in a bet to see who will be the first driven to kill her, her rectitude bears unwavering scrutiny. Confused and terrified, she pleads for her life, all the while unaware why or how she landed in this gritty, desolate, not quite real "real" situation. In the background, puppets Donnie and Maree (Mat Planet and Shannon Sarver) narrate the daily dose of bad news, their playfulness a cruel statement about the commercialism of tragedy.

Turning traditional horror into that of thought, Dunn, working with co-writer Chris Smith, exerts great precision with his story, never falling into the didactic while also proving himself unfaltering in his stylism. Cinematographer Kurt Rauf delivers frame after frame of imagery as intimately drawn as that of any graphic novel. From pacing to composition, the short shows no weak links in its design. Like a well made puzzle, each piece fits into the other, Turner's overblown and manic James complementing Diamond's resigned Henry with ease.

Opening on a brutal, lonely image, a young girl bound and gagged in a hallway, The Bet ends calmly, an image of multiple, graceful objects taking up the frame. It's a quiet ending for a thematically loud film, a juxtaposition crafted by a new filmmaker with tremendous promise.

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