Honourable mention: Wrong Way

The Vampirologist Anthony Hogg posted a link (over at facebook) to a subtitled version of this short on YouTube. The short is, I think, Bulgarian and is based on a Stephen King short story.

That short story, One for the Road, is a story that centres on ’Salem’s Lot (post the events of the main novel) and whilst the snow storm of that story is replaced for a rain storm and the location is moved from New England to Bulgaria, this remains a very faithful rendition of the story. The film was directed by Georgi Yordanov and was uploaded (without subtitles) to YouTube in 2010.

Lazar

It is narrated by Lazar, a restaurant owner, who reminisces about a man, Evgeni, who comes into the restaurant during a rainstorm. The stranger is soaked to the skin and asks to use the phone, but the lines are down. He then explains that he was travelling through a gorge when his car broke an axel near a village.

Evgeni

Lazar calls the village the dead village and explains that a water plant was meant to be built and so the village houses were bought out, but the plant was never built and the houses remained empty. When he discovers that Evgeni left his wife and child in the car he tells him that each house is said to contain a ghoul – a dead man who has not moved on. When it is suggested that he means vampires he, interestingly, states that vampires and werewolves are the same thing and that they call them ghouls. This was neatly merging these concepts as they often are in folklore.

into the dead village

The storm has ended and so the man returns to his car and Lazar picks up a gun and goes with him; but what will they find…

If you’ve read the story you will know, if not then the film is definitely worth a watch. At the time the article was written I could find no IMDb page.