Tony Savero’s short movie, The Drawer, is colorful, gross, and so much more, pulling me into its gruesome world soon after it began. With many different personal signatures such as POV angles, slow zoom-ins, wide-angle and panning shots, and other techniques in his repertoire, writer/editor/director Tony Savero crafted an excellent showcase of his burgeoning talent.

I’ve seen many scenes of cleanups during murders, however, The Drawer opens and shuts the book on this classic plot-trope, capturing the gory details of the murderous act while showing off the artistic and quirky touches from filmmaker Tony Savero. I really loved Savero’s transition shots, often using a fading technique to create very clever overlays of related images. Savero’s editing on this film is to be commended as well, with many interesting cuts keeping the pacing of the film engaging, all without nearly a line of dialogue needing to be uttered.

The Drawer opens in the midst of a crime — a man has just murdered an unidentified woman. After rolling up her body in an area rug, he washes the knife he used as the murder weapon and cleans up the blood, but when he returns to the knife, he finds it is bloody again as if he had never washed it. Realizing that the knife returns to this state automatically, he attempts to throw away the knife and the drawer, only to find he cannot run away from his misdeeds so easily.

In The Drawer, the anachronistic atmosphere cultivated by the Americana-draped setting and upbeat ragtime music stands in stark contrast to the horrific content of the film, which was bloody, but vibrantly colored thanks to the film’s interesting choices in cinematography. With a mix of folky-sound music for the film score and brilliant acting from the film’s protagonist in a one-man-show performance, The Drawer presents a haunting story that is also beautiful to watch.

Like a supernatural, modern-day version of The Tell-Tale Heart, Tony Savero’s The Drawer, follows a man plagued by inescapable deja vu that leads to his unexpected punishment. Shot almost like a silent film, The Drawer impresses by showing without telling, using thoughtful shots in lieu of words — except for one well-earned word placed for comedic relief.

Give it a watch at the link below!

7.75 out of 10