By Valerie Milano
Palm Springs, CA (The Hollywood Times) 7/13/26 – Filmmaker Simon Stockdale’s Do Evil Thoughts Make an Evil Man? is a tense, thought-provoking short that asks a deceptively simple question: Can a person be considered evil for thoughts they never act upon?
Screened at the River Valley Film Festival, the 12-minute thriller stars Hoyt Richards as a dying man who makes a disturbing confession to his nurse, played by April Yanko. What begins as a contained bedside conversation gradually becomes an unsettling examination of morality, secrecy and personal responsibility.
The Hollywood Times, a media partner of the River Valley Film Festival, spoke with Stockdale about the inspiration behind the film and his decision to leave its central question unanswered.
Stockdale said the concept grew from his experiences working as a delivery driver and dealing with road rage. After thinking terrible things about strangers in traffic, he began wondering whether private thoughts alone revealed something darker about a person’s character.
“Does having those thoughts make you a bad person, or do you have to act on those thoughts in order for you to be a bad person?” Stockdale asked.
The filmmaker wisely avoids offering a definitive answer. Instead, the screenplay presents opposing perspectives and allows viewers to continue the argument after the film ends.
That ambiguity gives the short much of its power. Richards and Yanko create believable tension as the balance of sympathy and judgment shifts throughout their exchange. Stockdale credited both performers, who also served as producers, with helping refine the script through extensive discussions and revisions that continued until filming began.
“They refuse to let a project be worse than what they believe it can be,” he said of the collaborators.
Click below for our exclusive interview:
Stockdale also edits his own work and admitted that his personal response to the film’s moral question changed as he listened to the actors make their arguments.
“You’re kind of agreeing with whoever’s talking,” he said, suggesting that context may ultimately shape the answer.
The project is Stockdale’s first short film after previously working in features. He said the primary challenge was maintaining suspense throughout the compact running time without exhausting the audience.
The result is an intimate thriller with questions far larger than its setting. Rather than relying on action or elaborate visuals, the film builds its intensity through dialogue, performance and the growing weight of the confession.
Stockdale began pursuing filmmaking after surviving a near-fatal collision with a drunk driver in 2021. The experience pushed him toward stories intended to offer more than entertainment.
“I wanted to tell stories that mattered,” he said, “that created not only entertainment, but critical thought.”
With Do Evil Thoughts Make an Evil Man?, he succeeds. The film does not tell audiences what to believe. It leaves them with something more valuable: a moral question that continues long after the screen goes dark.
Filmmaker Simon Stockdale discusses his tense short film Do Evil Thoughts Make an Evil Man?, its deathbed confession and the moral question at its center.
