News

Why Watch? Doug Jones has played some beloved characters from his turn in the Hellboy movies to the freaky monsters of Pan’s Labyrinth. However, this might be his creepiest role ever (and the most you ever get to see his face). This beautifully shot short film tells the story of a candy shop owner (played by Jones) who looks like the Gene Wilder Willy Wonka and Jigsaw had a love child that was born with lupus. He’s ghoulish, and he has a machine that turns little girls into candy. But it’s okay, right? Because there’s a market for it. One young man is lured into working for him and must choose between making the money to keep food on his family’s table and keeping his soul. The whole fantasy is a parable about child sex trafficking. It’s a haunting movie, and it was made to help raise awareness and money to...

“Here is a story you think you know, but do not.” So the tagline goes for the new short film Heartless: The Story of the Tinman by Whitestone Motion Pictures.

Heartless was written and directed by Brandon McCormick and co-written by Charlie Wetzel, both of Whitestone Motion Pictures. It’s based on the original classic story by L. Frank Baum (Wonderful Wizard of Oz) and tells the story of how the Tinman ended up the way he was when Dorothy found him in the woods. It stars Elizabeth Keener (The Golden Samovar) as the Maiden, Mark Ashworth (That’s Magic!) as the Tinner and Joshua Harrison (Gun Town) as the Woodsman/Tinman.

Mackenzie Reiland from Whitestone told me:

“The idea came from reading the source material in Wonderful Wizard of Oz and realizing how powerful and relevant the myth of the Tinman really is. The myth speaks to a modern...