Short Film: First Taste

First Taste is a short 10-minute film dated to 2011 and, given that director F.C. Rabbath has a lot of other shorts listed on IMDb, it is noticeable in its absence. This is a shame as the film, which has a subtle edge of black comedy, is superbly crafted.

crash

It starts with blood drops hitting the floor and we realise that there has been a car crash, we don’t see the occupants' features, or the person stood nearby, but we do see the photograph on the dash of Elizabeth (Phoebe French). We then see the kennels in a dog-pound and a man, John (Henry Tisdale), coming out with two dogs. Later we see his neighbour, Sharon (Dorothea Syleos), looking at him with something close to disdain as he carries refuse sacks into the back. The back yard is full of mounds.

watching TV

Elizabeth approaches Sharon and asks who lives in the house, for her part Sharon tries to discourage her from showing interest in the occupants of the spooky house. Sharon is trying to sell her own house... Meanwhile, inside his home, John and Mary (Laura W. Johnson, the Originals) are watching Nosferatu, eine Symphonie des Grauens and he is less than impressed. Their kind are portrayed all wrong in the movies and as for the insinuation that they drink human blood… Well, sometimes, he admits, such films make him curious…

fangs

Meanwhile Sharon has spotted another neighbour Fred (Bill Kelly) and he is trying to sell up also. They see Elizabeth wandering in to the spooky house's yard and try to stop her, whilst asking her where her parents are. She suggests that they are in the house. The debate over what to do is interrupted as John opens the door, he denies that Elizabeth's parents are there but then invites the neighbours in after they doubt his word. It looks like they have little choice…

What happens? Well the short is embedded below. As mentioned, I couldn’t find an IMDb page for this one.