One humid Florida night, Gabino, an aging horse thief, steals a prize mare for Fat Ted, a black-market middleman. Bad things happen.

That’s as specific as I can get about “The Horse Thief” without spoiling the story’s surprises. It offers a deft mix of noir and horror that proves both unsettling and melancholy:

When she ran her black coat rippled with underlying muscle like a wind-blown lake in Hell.

Fracassi also shows an aptitude for the hard-boiled genre:

The only folks coming to see Fat Ted were the folks Fat Ted wanted to see.

I envisioned Fat Ted as a heavier version of Chris Penn’s character from Reservoir Dogs. Fracassi’s dialog evokes a similar natural cadence and organic tone.

“Because all these scenarios have a problem, see, and that problem is that it leaves me with the mess. The mess and the heat. So, you see, sir, that we abso-fuckin-lutely have ourselves a teensy-weensy problem, all right?”

Granted, the ending didn’t thrill me the way Fracassi intended, but I didn’t feel cheated either.