Short Film: the High Cost of Dying

The High Cost of Dying is a 2015 film directed by Rodney V. Smith and based on a character from his prose series So You Might Be a Vampire.

It follows the character Beatrice (Sara Cecile) who tells us that she has been out of the world for ten years. She wears a medical gauze over one eye, is followed by a man in black (Joe Cheng) who is likely in her own mind and is giving presents to those who know her, before moving on, but she actually doesn’t know any of the people. She asks a waitress, Clarice (Nikki Barran), for her usual but the waitress has never seen her before. When she says this, Beatrice suggests that the waitress just pretend as she really needs a friend.

blood stains

Leaving would appear to be suicide and this is clarified when she meets the sinister Mr Flynn (Simon Fletcher Li) who welcomes her back and suggests he will have her killed. When she mentions killing herself at dawn he allows her the night. In their conversation she mentions the strain that progress is having on her – the move of things like carriages to the automobile a moment of stress in her life. So will she kill herself or will Flynn do it for her?

You’ll have to watch and see. The character was interesting. In 11 minutes there is little room to build a character but Smith does very well in the time he has to play with. The imdb page is here.