Short Film: Familiar

This short film was in the third block of shorts presented in the Killer Valley Horror Film Festival and is a ten-minute piece directed by David J. Ellison and released in 2021. It is also a rather marvellous little short, thanks in great part to the central performance.

The film takes place in Pennsylvania on 1942 and, in a large mansion, we meet Richard Mason (Hugo Nicolau). He sits on his bed, an air of dejection surrounding him, as a gramophone plays – the song has the lyric “If I didn’t care” and it seems apropos and as Mason has no dialogue through the film it seems to speak for him. A distant voice can be heard, begging to be let out.

bringing lunch

We see Mason in a bathroom, his ribs are apparently sore and he has a cut to his face. We see him iron his clothes and then we see him enter the mansion (having gone out) carrying a heavy burden on his shoulder, clearly a body wrapped up. The burden is taken into the basement and he pulls the wrapping back to reveal her (Milda Cuplinskaite) face. Again we see him sat on the bed, the strain he feels is palpable. A scream reverberates around the mansion and he runs and slams his door shut, then retreating deep into his room and in obvious mental anguish – the door opens and there is a mist and we see a pov rush at him.

mental anguish

And here we have the power of the short and it all emanates from Hugo Nicolau’s physical performance. We know he is tortured by what he is expected to do, we also know that he is physically abused by the vampire (Rick Wiltshire). Some is communicated by cuts but much is communicated in the actor’s art and it feels pitch perfect – bravo. So what of the vampire.

neck wound

We know it is a vampire, or at least vampiric, and the film offers us tropes. Mason goes to remove the corpse of the victim we saw him bring and, as he looks at her corpse, he turns her head exposing her damaged neck. This vampire rips the neck open. We see mist appear connected to the vampire and there is some suggestion that it controls the weather (specifically thunder). When we see it at a distance we see a hulking monstrosity that might have once been a man.

the Vampire

Up close we see that it is truly monstrous but ultimately this film isn’t about the vampire, but the vampire’s familiar. There have been numerous examples of a vehicle concentrating (or heavily referencing, sometimes) the vampire’s servant and we get a range of views, including several with the servant being disenchanted with their lot. Nothing I can think of has captured the familiar horrified at their lot in life as well as this. How will the relationship go? The answer, as always, is in the short.

The imdb page is here.

Short Film: Lisa

Lisa was a short film directed by Jacob Pinger and was on week 2 of the 2021 Killer Valley Horror Film Festival. Whilst the entity within the film might be identified as one of a couple of things, there certainly is blood drinking and I think it deserves a place here at TMtV.

So, it starts with Mandy (Ava Acres, Hotel Transylvania 2, Adventure Time: Stakes & American Horror Story: Hotel) who is recording a video for social media from her new home. She hears raised voices between mom (Stephanie Burden) and dad (Keith Edie), and mom comes in and tells her off for recording on moving in day.

with the book

As the story develops it transpires that mom had an affair and it was discovered when Mandy walked in on her mid-coitus with her lover. This has precipitated a move of States as a way of trying to fix things but it is clear there is no love lost between parents. Mandy has found an old book, which she intends to “arts and crafts” into a jewellery box, admitting to camera that she is unaware of what the book is about, or even what language it is in. She reads a line out… we all know where that is likely to go.

haunted

She thinks something bites her, but when dad looks there is no blood or marks, Her dreams are disturbed and she, through research, discovers that the previous occupants of the house included a teen girl, Lisa (Isabella Acres), who was into the occult and who killed herself. It seems that Lisa is back but there are a few interpretations… The reading from the book brings Evil Dead to mind but the similarity stops there and Lisa does not act like a deadite.

feeding

It might be that Lisa is a demon, however, in the previous girl’s form and summoned by the passage from the book. Equally, as we have the bite, of course, and we have her sucking the blood from a cut Mandy is encouraged to make on her arm, Lisa may be a vampiric ghost and we do have the oft used connection between suicide and vampirism. However, as the bite couldn’t be seen after the fact (and as mom suggests she is a teen ‘attention seeking’) one could read this as not supernatural at all, with Lisa being a projected aspect of Mandy’s psyche as she moves from happy vlogger to withdrawn and self-harming, as a way of coping with her parents’ marital problems and the ‘punishment’ of being moved from her friends due to her catching her mother’s indiscretions.

The imdb page is here.

Short Film: The Witch’s Bargain

The Witch’s Bargain is a short film that was the featurette on week 1 of the 2021 Killer Valley Horror Film Festival. Running since 2007, it was a new one on me but running online and featuring horror shorts it was well worth checking out.

The film itself was around 30 minutes and focuses on Scarah, Damsel of the Doomed (Sarah Webb) – the witch of the title. Scarah is a character developed as a horror host, from what I can gather, for HorrorWeb Productions and there are a series of 5 fact videos, looking at various horror films, entitled Tub of Terror in which Scarah presents from her bubble bath filled tub.

at mother's grave

This is a professionally drawn short and sees Scarah visiting her mother’s grave. Mom died without finding what she always wanted, a spell of longevity. Scarah is determined to find the spell for herself and knows where to start – her mother's old grimoire. Mother hid it, when Scarah was a child (we see this in flashback) and so Scarah knows where it is. She digs the occult tome up.

Chance Jones as the demon

Following this she performs a ritual, from the grimoire, to summon a demon – Barbas (Chance Jones); she has a specific (and convoluted type of) virgin’s blood to trade for the spell. Barbas informs her that there is no such spell, he does however give her a way to achieve her desire – handing her a map and a key in exchange for the blood.

Corey Trahan as Orlock

Following the map Scarah gets to a castle and once within and having explored for a short while she finds a coffin, beyond a door with a large bat motif on it. The coffin is empty but we have seen a creature, shall we say rather Nosferatu like and called Orlock (Corey Trahan), following her silently… What will happen? For the answer to that you’ll have to see the short. However it was impressively shot for an indie piece and Sarah Webb carried the short with confidence – being the primary focus throughout (with the exception of the flashback scene).

The imdb page is here.

from the micro-short

Bonus Bit: As well as showing shorts the KVHFF also added micro-shorts into the running time of the festival. One saw a soldier, during a battle, take shelter in some sort of barn. A vampire is in there, feeding on another soldier and turns his attention to the first. And that is it. Blink and you miss it, with no name for the micro-short, nor credits to report, I thought I’d mention it here as it was on the same block of films as The Witch’s Bargain.