Short Film: Vamp

Director: Zack Chapman

Release date: 2013

Contains spoilers

At a shade under 19 minutes Vamp succeeds due to script and performances, with a great performance by principle lead Adam Budron as Ren, a slacker. The film also throws names around like confetti so we get a news report, as the opening, that talks about the “Suburban Succubus” a (thought to be female) serial killer who has killed 8 victims thus far – all of whom displayed punctures of their main arteries.

Ren and Jon

The news report also suggests that the locals have their own theories and the words vampire and chupacabra are both mentioned. The Suburban Succubus is said to have a mark on her wrist. The news report is being watched by Ren. Ren is homeless and jobless and is currently living on his best friend’s couch. Said best friend, Jon (Seth Baird), is pressuring Ren about gaining employment and wants him to move out – the couch was only meant to be temporary and Ren’s only contribution to the household is beer.

the news

Jon has also got a new girlfriend, Lucy (Elizabeth Lee), who he met via Craigslist. Ren hasn’t met her but is suspicious – he later suggests that all women suck the soul out of their partners. He arranges to meet them both at a bar that night. When she walks in we (and Ren) immediately notice that she has a tattoo on her wrist, he challenges her to shots – which she wins when he retires to the toilet to hurl. When he gets out he is informed that they are leaving.

Lucy bloodied

Walking home drunk, he drops a cigarette. Looking up he sees a man and woman in an alley. The man slumps and the woman turns – it is Lucy with blood around her mouth. He runs… In the morning Jon jogs Ren's hungover memory of what he saw, when he plays him the voicemail Ren left his friend. Ren is convinced that Lucy will eventually kill Jon (and is horrified to discover she is moving in) but how can one deal with the undead, especially when your main source of information is a patently mad homeless guy called Abraham (Martin Pfefferkorn, I Sell the Dead) .

expert advice?!

As I mentioned at the head it is the performances – primarily Adam Budron’s, but the other leads all deliver – that makes this, along with a slick script. The tone of the film is very much a hip comedy, perhaps in the Kevin Smith vein, that is until the ending, which was excellently counterbalanced against that humour. It gives the short extra legs.

The imdb page is here.