By Jason Kerr
Director Santiago Saba Salem brings us an 80’s set chiller in the short Red Gloves.
The film starts with Isabelle Phillips’ Linda sitting, legs crossed with her back to the camera, as the camera is set just outside the room. In the next scene she’s up and striding around the room awaiting cues from the dance tutor Olivia played by Ruth Kavanagh. Ed Malones Cooper is operating the sound system, well, the radio cassette player, an iconic piece of kit for any respectable nod to the 80’s. Cooper hits play and the girl’s dance. The dance students led by Linda are being put through their paces by their dance tutor, who is demanding more effort. After practice Linda is the last student in the room and appears to be getting some extra time to polish her routine.
There’s is a lot of music in this short and it’s used for good dramatic effect throughout its 11 minute 15 seconds running time. You can hear synth that was used to great effect in films like The Fog (1980) and Unhinged (1981) the latter reminding me very much of segments of the score in this short. There is also rock and screeching guitar belting out for the more perilous scenes.
It’s that music that builds as Linda becomes aware of an unexpected and more importantly an unwanted visitor in the building. With lights going out and the cassette player stopping, Linda suspects Cooper has returned to tease her, she’s obviously frightened by the disturbances and threatens her tormentor. You get a sense of that same unsettling, creepy vulnerability that befell so many female characters in those 80’s slasher movies. What a feeling, think Flashdance with a cutthroat razor and we are on the same track with this excellent short.
Bloody Flicks 