South by Southwest (SXSW) Film Festival – Horse Brothers is one strange little short. It’s an art-house film about two brothers and some bad blood. Oh, and there’s a talking horse. The animal convinces one brother to kill the other. Yep, that’s the sort of movie we’re talking about here. But the eight minutes never feel so weird that the film loses itself to experimentation.

Written and directed by Milos Mitrovic and Fabian Velasco, the short stars Sam Singer as Frodo and Mitrovic as his unnamed brother. Guy Maddin, meanwhile, voices Anton the horse. The brothers live on a farm and sell used electronics to make ends meet. Anton convinces the older brother that the younger one is pinching profits. So of course, the horse suggests a plan, a plan involving murder. As I said, this is one odd little film. Parts of it feel like a psychedelic horror film from the late 1960s or early 1970s, especially some of the eye-popping red tones and a few scenes that may or may not be a dream. This is a reality-bending film.

The ending leans into the strange and the surreal with an image of Anton on a boat. Maybe the brother did get away with murder, but there’s enough ambiguity to leave the viewer guessing. Most of all, this short feels like the directors just grabbed the camera and wanted to have fun, trying to create something as unusual as possible with a low budget.

I’m not sure there’s enough here to warrant a feature. This feels self-contained and more of an experiment than anything else. Horse Brothers isn’t for everyone, but for those into the weird and experimental, this is worth a watch. How many films can say they feature a sinister Mister Ed as a main character?

6 Out of 10