Thursday, March 02, 2023

Short Film: Vampire CEO


This 2017 short, directed by Adam Gambrel, comes in at just over 10-minutes and is a lovely example of minimalist short film making. With just the characters of Derek (Chase Anderson) and Edwin Black (Wes Holland), mostly sat opposite each over at a table, the film relies on the actors and the dialogue.

Derek has been called to a meeting with CEO Edwin Black, at night after the office has shut. Black explains that there is continuous evaluation of staff and between concerns about his performance and poor customer feedback they are going to have to terminate his employment.

Chase Anderson as Derek

After a few moments to let the situation sink in, Derek is relieved… he thought Black was going to murder him. After all, he is a vampire, isn’t he? When Black discovers that most of the office perceive him to be a vampire (he’s called Count Black behind his back and Derek was going to use Blacula, but apparently it is already a thing), Black asks Derek what makes people think he is a vampire.

Wes Holland as Edwin Black

Derek goes through the signs and we get reference to the wider genre megatext in the form of the “say it” scene from Twilight and reference to True Blood, but for every “tell” Black has a perfectly reasonable explanation, so he couldn’t actually be a vampire, could he?

The imdb page is here.

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