Making its world premiere at the 2025 Tribeca Festival in the NY Off Peak Shorts showcase, Terror Keeps You Slender is a lean, engrossing urban parable from actor-turned-director Daniel Serafini-Sauli that unfolds with the elegance of a chamber piece and the quiet menace of street noir. Clocking in at 22 minutes, it’s a rare short that feels fully realised, taut, precise, and emotionally resonant.

Set on a single stretch of Harlem sidewalk, the film begins with what appears to be a chance interaction between a solitary street photographer and a charismatic passerby but quickly mutates into a sharp-edged power play between two strangers navigating identity, connection, and control. The premise is simple. The execution, razor-sharp.

Emmy-winner Luke Kirby turns in a masterful performance, minimalist in motion but seething with unease just beneath the surface. Opposite him, Genevieve Hudson-Price is magnetic, effortlessly shifting from warmth to menace with the precision of a stage veteran. Their chemistry crackles, anchored by a script that values rhythm, ambiguity, and restraint. The silences speak volumes, and every gesture counts.

Serafini-Sauli’s direction is unshowy but exacting, honed by his own experience as an actor across Broadway, the West End, and prestige TV. He understands the weight of a glance, the tension in a still frame. Cinematographer Bill Kirstein’s lens work adds another layer of subtle sophistication Harlem isn’t just a setting here, but a living, breathing organism: watchful, unpredictable, and full of history.

Rounding out the ensemble are Ajay Naidu and Jamie Neumann, both of whom lend lived-in energy to this brief but immersive world. What distinguishes Terror Keeps You Slender is how fully it understands New York: its rhythms, its moral elasticity, its loneliness. There are no wasted moments here, no exposition dumps or forced sentiment. Just two people performing versions of themselves, until the roles slip and something true surfaces.

This is not a short that plays like a pitch deck. It’s a distilled story told with complete confidence. Stylish, emotionally exacting, and steeped in dark wit, Terror Keeps You Slender marks Serafini-Sauli as a director with a cinematic voice all his own.