Short Film: Blood & Roots

Directed by Wren Brewer, this 11 ½ minute short film was uploaded to YouTube in 2024 but does not have an IMDb page that I can find. Exploring the drifting of friends as puberty and boys enter the scene, it is also a neat little vampire tale.

girl talk

It starts with Care (Wren Brewer) and Jan (Evie Turley) hanging out. Jan suggests she is going to see *him* (he being Cyrus (Cannon Haney)) and let him do *it*. Care is unsure, suggesting it not being a good idea, expressing concern that he is older and that it will hurt. Jan is dismissive.

with Grandpa

At school, their teacher (Richard Douglas Jones) gives a biology lesson about metamorphosis. After school Care rides home on her bike and heads into the garage for a juice and a chat to her Grandpa (Bill Baker). He is making *another* birdhouse. When she asks why he says that he likes to protect small things and he also loves to work wood – suggesting that, with the things you can make from it, it is alive even after it is dead.

boyfriend at the window

In her room, getting ready for bed, Care hears a knock at the window. It is Jan asking to be let in. Shocked she does so, only registering the height from the ground later. Jan no longer has a reflection and her eyes shine and she has fangs… Cyrus is soon floating near the window and Jan has an ultimatum. Care must come to them the next day and let him bite her, to make her like Jan, or she will drain her friend to death. Luckily Care will confide in her grandpa, whose woodworking skills weren’t always focused on birdhouses…

fangs

This is such a well put together little short, examining coming of age and peer pressure, whilst crafting, as I mentioned, a neat little vampire tale. Whilst the main chops are not something particularly new, I liked the biology aspects (we see a second class ON the evolution of predator and prey) and it was particularly well photographed with sound acting. Worth your time.