Short Film: Mur-Pire

This is a 2017 short that was directed by Alex Rivers and comes in at just under 18-minutes. The name? Mur-Pire is a portmanteau word made up of murderer and vampire, and is absolutely not used in the film. Rather, in film they use Vampurderer. It is also another film where a corporate leader is perceived as a vampire and, to be fair, it is easy to see why storytellers would be drawn to this trope.

The film starts with Henry (Stuart Hammill) asleep at his desk. It is mid-afternoon. His slumber is interrupted as a hand comes down heavy on the desk. The hand belongs to James (George Tattum), who shares the office with him.

a sleeping Henry

Henry did not get much in the way of sleep the night before and that’s his excuse for the snooze but James cautions that Vanessa (Lize Johnston) had better not catch him sleeping on the job. Their conversation moves along and I liked the dialogue, built to sound realistic and just that little bit corporate-bro. The conversation has veered towards Henry’s love life and his ex (who works in a bar the office workers frequent and he is avoiding).

George Tattum as James

Suddenly Rob (Evan Henderson) comes in, almost begging for assurance that they haven’t finished their reports. Henry should be done in the next day or so (after all he did sleep part of the afternoon away) and James is done. Rob has lost his – he forgot to save – but Vanessa will forgive him… surely… Vanessa comes up behind him and it is clear that she is as bad as the others made out (she fired someone for having a paper jam). They scurry back to work – though James quickly leaves for the day (his report done).

revealed as a vampire

Henry stays and works into the night until the report is finished, at which point he leaves. Rob is still in his office when he gets a visit from Vanessa. Uncharacteristically nice, she suggests that he is under pressure and she’d like to relieve it. Henry goes back to the office, he forgot his keys. On the way out again he pushes Rob’s office door open to see what looks like Vanessa canoodling with him, till she turns her head and there is blood on her mouth and she has fangs… Henry bolts and runs into a wall, knocking himself out and waking at his desk the next day.

towering over Henry

He can remember what he saw, though the official line is Rob has been fired, with new worker Leslie (Rachel Braff) in Rob’s office. How is Henry supposed to convince James and Leslie that Vanessa is a vampire (or, as James coins it, a vampurderer)? I liked this. I mentioned the natural sounding dialogue and the actors all bring heart to their roles. There is a run through some lore in the film, which I won’t spoil but it is fairly standard. I also want to mention the casting, particularly Lize Johnston. Casting is about acting ability but sometimes the look of the actor is important. Johnston is tall and thin and her build, given her character’s association with a vampire, is reminiscent of Orlock – especially when she towers over Henry. This one is worth your time, for sure.

The imdb page is here.

Mur-Pire from Alex Rivers on Vimeo.