Honourable Mention: Terminus

Terminus is a 2010 short movie, approximately 40 minutes in length, directed by Sean P. Parsons, which is based upon the novel “Blood Hunger” by A M Esmonde. The film was intended to be a showcase – hence the honourable mention, though the film is available in the US on Amazon video on demand. Indeed it is almost a prelude story to the novel. Esmonde had previously worked on the short Revamped: a Vampire Tale, which can be seen here.

Hauer and Anushka

The film was described to me as arthouse and it isn’t a bad description. The filmmakers have summoned a feeling, rather than a fleshed out narrative, an excursion into the Blood Hunger world. It concentrates on two main characters, Hauer (Philip Fletcher) a drifter and Anushka (Katherine DuBois) an assassin who is also a vampire. Some of the dialogue delivery is quite stagey but many of the cast members have a background in theatre and, to be honest, the delivery works with the atmosphere that the film develops.

offering the substitute

Anushka has foresworn human blood, feeding instead on a synthetic alternative that has the side effect that it allows vampires to work in daylight but is as addictive as heroin. This is similar to the miracle substance in the flick the Dead Matter, though this film draws a more beautifully photographed world around us. Anushka hunts her own kind, as an assassin, and the blood substitute seems to be her payment. She classes humans as innocents. A viewpoint scoffed about by fellow vampire Marquise (Stacey Jackson).

Katherine DuBois as Anushka

Anushka and Hauer’s paths first cross because he stays, and gets massively drunk, in the abandoned paper-mill that Anushka has made her home. For the first time in a long time Anushka findsherself tempted to take human blood. Later, through friend Caelum (Sarah Taurchini) and her drug dealing boyfriend, Jacob (Ben Cunis), Hauer is drawn back into the vampires’ world – not knowing that Jacob has been turned. In this film, when a vampire is killed said vampire explodes with a flush of flames.

vampire assassin

As I mentioned, the narrative story is fairly thin. It is a very simple story that showcases more the filmmaking skills of Parsons and introduces the viewer to the interesting ideas within Esmonde’s story. The script for a feature based on Blood Hunger is being written, which I hope will expand on those interesting ideas and bring them to a wider audience.

The imdb page is here and the film’s homepage is here.