Good Guy with a Gun (19:24)
Alt-Horror; Dread Central; Dust; IMDb; YouTube

This 2020 short film was presented as an Alter Exclusive in 2020.

If this weren't an Alter Exclusive, I think I'd put my review under "drama" rather than "horror", but it is pretty horrific. There are bound to be people who get offended by the film, as the main character, Alrick, clearly isn't a "good guy", even if that's how he sees himself. So they'd likely find the title intentionally misleading, and label the whole film something like "liberal propaganda". I can understand that perspective, because I'm sure there are actual good guys with guns out there, unlike Alrick. But I still don't agree with that perspective; I don't consider the film propaganda or misleading at all. It's just a tragic reality that there are a lot of bad guys who consider themselves good guys, and even the genuinely good people with guns can be dangerous, and make deadly mistakes.

The film mostly consists of narration by Alrick, with just a little bit of actual dialogue. And some of what we see is just fantasy inside his head, but there's at least one bit which I wasn't sure if it was really happening or not. I don't want to divulge too much of the plot, but Alrick feels people treat him unfairly, and after he gets beaten up (by the brother of a woman he raped, even though he doesn't consider himself guilty of rape), he decides to buy an AR-15. And of course he ends up abusing it. The film is a very disturbing, but important, portrayal of the twisted mindset of far too many people in our society. I didn't really enjoy watching it, but it was well-made and powerful.