O Negative

Running at a length of 14-minutes this short was directed by Steven McCarthy and is light on dialogue, but whilst it still offers a well communicated narrative it is less a story and more a captured moment in time. However it is one that is excellently portrayed by all those involved. It also has a wonderful lore moment.

We see a man (Steven McCarthy, The Strain) driving through the night, concern etched on his face. In the backseat of the car is a semi-conscious woman (Alyx Melone). He gets a knife out and cuts his palm, whilst driving, holding his hand back to the woman.

transfusion mask

They get a motel and we see she is on the bed as he brings equipment in. There is a mask he places over her mouth and he injects her with something. It is clear that he is hooking himself to a transfusion machine but, rather than transfusing to a vein, the machine pumps the blood to the mask, feeding blood to her through the tubing. This is the lore moment I mentioned – the machine is a stroke of genius.

love like blood

The "transfusion" of blood having brought her round, he must then find her a more substantial meal. Just how he achieves this is revealed in the short that I have embedded below. However, despite such sparse dialogue, we are offered a richly layered narrative through the actors – we see his love, almost fatalistic, we see his anguish and feel that he is both reluctant and also desperate to keep the woman he loves fed.

The imdb page is here.