Short Film: Drakulon

Auteur Chris Alexander features several times on this blog. Though some of his work is narrative, other films are much more arthouse. The IMDb page describes this as “A conceptual, music-driven experimental psychodrama”, and that seems as good a description as any. It was released in 2025 and comes in around the 45 minute mark, flirting with feature length but still best described as a short.

The film is silent and follows an artist (Suspiria Vilchez) who, as things start, dreams of a vampire (Jessica Mucciante). Wearing her chiffon cloak and little else, the vampire might well have walked out of a Jean Rollin film. Indeed there is much I see in Chris Alexander’s films of Rollin and Jess Franco, this being no different. We can note that, in real life, Suspiria Vilchez is an artist and painted the pictures seen in film.

the model and the artist

When the artist awakes (she is in a motel, which is a transitory and perhaps even liminal space, which is often used by the director), we see a painting she has done of a woman with a bat outline over the face and also one of a vampire. Indeed, though Vilchez’ own, I thought I spotted a portrait tattoo of Bela Lugosi but the images we see all suggest an obsession (though one I’d personally say is healthy). However, when a model (Ali Chappell, Necropolis Legion & Space Vampire) comes we see that the artist seems blocked and the model eventually leaves, the canvas untouched.

Jessica Mucciante as the vampire

So, the vampire is the muse, but we are in a place where dreams and reality do seem to merge and become lost. Does the artist later murder the model or is it fantasy, daydream or full dream? Does she invoke the vampire and does the vampire bite her or is the vampire an allegory for her creativity (or for the director’s creativity, given how much he embraces vampire imagery in his films)? The soundtrack, by Chris Alexander, is superb, driving the film. The film is at the further end of arthouse and may not be everyone’s cup of team but if you are a Chris Alexnder fan (or even a Rollin or Franco fan) it is one to be watched.

The imdb page is here.