Short Films: Destiny The Vampire Mermaid – Crimson Currents & Death in the Dark

Two short films the first, directed by Rusty Pietrzak and released in 2009, came in at about 13 minutes and the direct sequel, directed by James Panetta and released in 2010, was longer at around 18 minutes. Both starred Debbie D (Vampyre Tales, Deep Undead, Requiem for a Vampire, Around Midnight & Jim Haggerty’s Unnatural Causes) as the eponymous Destiny.

The first short sees a couple of women held by pirate captain Anne Bonny (Laura Giglio, After Midnight and also Deep Undead & Around Midnight). Also held is Destiny and Bonny, with her first mate Mary (Deborah Dutch, 60 Seconds to Di3 & The Vampire Hunters Club), want to know which ship she came from before they fished her out of the sea. Destiny says no ship and, with a trigger word, turns into her mermaid form. Bonny has mentioned that they are trafficking virgins to Prince Dracula (who does not appear in this film but is played by Jim Ewald in the next). Destiny has a score to settle with Dracula (it is implied that he turned her).

Debbie D as Destiny

She was actually searching for a shipwreck with plunder from Atlantis and she and Bonny agree that she can get what she is looking for so long as she brings treasure back to the pirate – do that and she can have anything she wants. She gets an orb that has specks of light representing other mermaids round the globe and gives Bonny a necklace, unfortunately for the pirate, what Destiny wants as a reward is her ship and she strangles then feeds from the pirate – before taking the ship.

Jim Ewald as Dracula

The first film ends there, the next has Mary and Destiny in Transylvania. Despite their uneasy alliance, Destiny’s plan is to be taken into the castle in irons, as a prisoner, and then kill Dracula. Of course, this means they both end up in the dungeon with Peter Van Helsing (James Panetta) whose bag of vampire slaying gear has been left nearby by Dracula, just out of his reach, to torture him. The women team up with Van Helsing… The character of Destiny first appeared in a short from 1999 and was reprised for a short-lived web serial later. The shorts themselves are very much in the straight to video realm.

The imdb pages are here and here.