Short Film: Turned

This is a short film by Chris R. Notarile from 2015 that weighs in at just under 25 minutes and it nicely uses that time to give us a great fun little movie.

Jack (Josh Rothman) is lying bloody and unconscious on the floor, just before dawn, as Monty (Christian Chase) stands above him and he is brought round. Monty, and the others with him, are vampires and he is quick to tell Jack that it is his last day – he has been bitten, fed upon, he is in essence dead and by the next sunrise he’ll have turned.

It turns out that Jack has been a pain in Monty’s ass for four years, hunting him with a crew of slayers. When Jack died the crew fell apart and the vampires did the rest. Monty is looking forward to seeing Jack be overcome with the thirst and is also aware that, once turned, Jack will never be able to attack him again (you can’t attack your maker). They leave ahead of the sun, wishing Jack a special day.

Christian Chase as Monty

Jack phones the padre (Roberto Lombardi) and finds out that he’s at a safe house. When he gets there the padre is shocked to discover that Jack has been bitten but he knows what he has to do. Jack stops him – the rules mean nothing now and he has one day of sunlight to find Monty and kill him. It just so happens that he has realised that his ex, Heather (Athena Brensberger), had sold them out in return for what Monty was offering…

a predicament 

The whole thing plays quite alot like Vampire$, with the hardened slayer, the priest and the impending turning. It eschews all the mystical background, however, and just gives us slayers vs vampires, which is great. Jack is accused of encompassing every 80s action hero cliché – and that’s what Josh Rothman imbues the character with. Christian Chase provides us wise a great wise guy vampire. I wasn’t sure about padre’s hair though.

The imdb page is here.