Short Film: Klans Rules

This short film has a runtime of just over 23 minutes and was written and directed by Hilton Ariel Ruiz. The film does quite a bit for the short run time, despite this it is much more a set-up for a longer movie. It is also notable for the very professional cinematography, with the photography looking really good and crisp.

The film starts with a man (Brian Rogers) who puts a gun in his waist band and steps outside to light a cigarette. Nearby we see James (Fazon Gray) and Stacey (Denasia Starmecca Garris) who are having a romantic moment. There is a bang, maybe a gunshot, and James goes off to investigate and soon Stacey is on the move too.

Stacey and James

We see her enter an abandoned railcar so that she can hide, but the man gets on also – carrying a stake and mallet (note it is daytime). He gets to her hiding place ready to hammer the stake home (we cut to black)... James is chained and the man stands above him. He asks about Stacey – the man says she’s taken care of. The man suggests his family have been looking for James for generations – the inference becomes that the family were part of the Ku Klux Klan. He states James’ full name and says he was born in 1916 and was made head of the vampire clan (that later we hear the klan was hunting). He also says something about selling pills on the black market. James breaks the chains, the man holds a cross up as he backs away, and James says he doesn’t kill anymore, however…

imbibing blood

Cut to New York city and Abel (Jim Thalman) speaks to his sons, both in the same bed, both ill, before leaving the house. He is looking for access to “vampire pills”. He has a lead and manages to get the drop on Richard (Jordan Theodore). Richard managed to get some pills from the dark web – in return for a task he never completed, and therefore didn’t get the further pills promised. If Abel completed the task perhaps he’d get the pills?

wearing fake fangs

There isn’t a great deal of lore offered. A small capsule of vampire blood makes a person feel invincible and increases libido but those effects are fleeting – it does heal disease, however. They can clearly daywalk and a stake is not necessarily the end. A nice touch was a brief scene with James at a party, in vampire fancy dress including fake fangs. There were lots of story points raised through that could have stood wider exploration in a full-length vehicle but the short managed to hold the primary story together well.

The imdb page is here.