Short Film: Bats in the Belfry

Hailing from Portugal, this 7-minute long animated short was written and directed by João Alves and takes place in the Wild West.


It is night time and Deadeye Jack has tracked money bags he meant to steal that afternoon, before being interrupted by the sheriff, to a small mission in the desert. As he approaches the mission, we hear a woman (Rita Soares) within whimper and grunting as well as seeing splattering blood.

Jack

Jack roles a barrel of gunpowder towards the mission and lights the gunpowder trail it leaves, blowing the door. He gets to the open entrance to see a scene of carnage with a group of vampires, dressed as monks, feasting on the blood and flesh of a slaughtered group and only two survivors. Jack only wants the money but the vampires turn their attention to him…

vampires

The vampires go down with a shot to the head and have sharp teeth. There are bats within the sequence but no indication that they are anything more than bats. As for the animation, I saw an immediate stylistic similarity to such cartoons as Samurai Jack and it is crisp and fun. I actually enjoyed the whole thing and can see that it might actually be a launching pad for a whole series should Alves wish to pursue it.


The imdb page is here.

On Demand @ Amazon US

On Demand @ Amazon UK