I am not a big fan of horror films. My family jokes that I’m the biggest scaredy-cat because while my siblings thrive off the jump scares, I shrink from them. This is not to say that I’ve gone my whole life without seeing any; that would be impossible. Since my siblings love watching horror it meant more often than not I’d be forced into watching alone or face relentless teasing, and as a Leo rising I hated being excluded more than I hated feeling scared. So I’d watch Saw and I Know What You Did Last Summer until I couldn’t handle the nightmare anymore. I’m not saying I don’t appreciate the craft or enjoy certain horror elements. I’m fascinated with monsters and the supernatural and that of which is beyond human understanding, which is often explored in genre fiction like horror. I think my entry point, like that of many teens in the mid to late 2000s, were vampires. They were fun monsters that represented the horror of irreversible change to one’s body, the danger of the night, and the question of immortality all wrapped nicely in a sexy forbidden love packaging. After I read Twilight I consumed a fuck ton of vampire media, from Rochelle Mead’s Vampire Academy and Mellisa De La Cruz’s Blue Bloods to the Vampire Diaries television show. I was fascinated with the endless interpretations. At the center of these stories were young girls who, unlike the world around them, were in on the secrets of the supernatural and thus were compelled to transform themselves into a force to be reckoned with, either as a part of the work or against it. While I found the romances fun and entertaining, it was that transformation of the protagonists that I found most compelling.

And as I've gotten older, I still find vampires to be a compelling monster, but for different reasons. No longer am I concerned with vampires as romantic heroes but rather as actual monsters, and what that transformation looks like. That's why for this month’s column I chose to review  V, a  2017 horror short which premiered at BFI London Film Festival and was directed by Jimmy Dean and written by Ellie Gocher. The short centers on the day in the life of a sixteen-year-old vampire named Minnie (played by Synnøve Karlsen) as she reflects on her past relationships. When I first saw the description for this short I was intrigued. After all, the premise is simple and should be fairly easy to follow given the countless vampire movies that have preceded it. 

It starts interestingly enough with an introspective opening shot of our protagonist sitting in her bed playing with a plasma ball, before cutting to her opening a Gatorade bottle of blood to take a swing. She then begins addressing the camera with the opening line of her ten-minute long monologue: “Funny thing is, it still tastes like blood, I mean it’s not like it tastes like a smoothie or anything really good, it tastes the same as before, but nice.” This line opens us up to have our expectations challenged.  Our vampire protagonist is isolated without her sire, which indicates that her story of transformation is not about taboo desire but rather an embrace of her monstrous inclinations as a form of empowerment like with Jennifer’s Body. But as the heavy handed monologue outlines her emotional turmoil, Minnie loses her mom to cancer after her father leaves them. Visual world building fails to add to the physical world in a way that supports the emotional interior the monologue is going for, with the exception of the shot depicting her one kill, the body of a random man from her apartment building sitting drained in her tub as she talks about being abandoned by her friends.  Instead, the isolation of our protagonist escalates as she waxes a love lost, and then reveals her transformation was the result of being sexually assaulted at a party. This gives the story emotional angst but no sense, almost literary in its introspection. Then it cuts to her once again playing with the plasma ball in her bed before cutting finally to the credits. 

It’s a bit of a record scratch moment. There is no dread build-up, no shock scares, and the psychological aspect of it falls flat. It doesn’t have anything interesting to say about girlhood or sexual assault. All it would need to do to succeed as a piece of horror is establishing the fear through what kind of vampire Minnie is and why we should find her transformation into this monster horrifying, but the short ended up falling flat for me for several reasons, mainly that Gorch’s script doesn’t follow genre conventions and is rather completely uninterested in horror as storytelling vehicle for trauma. Vampires are the ultimate genre monster but rather commit to that kind of storytelling it’s used as a way to almost dress up the story because Ms. Gorch doesn’t trust that her script would be compelling enough without it. This visuals are trying to give me the emotional dread of It Follows but with none of the investment into its monster. I can appreciate that Jimmy Dean is going for an It Follows feel, with the shots he chose, especially the shot of Minnie with her victim or her turn in the tunnel that makes it look like a monster is following but the writing fails to match overall. Vampires should be more than a weak metaphor for trauma. The Capricorn sun in me that loves rules wishes I could tell Gorch that in order for it to land the story must follow the conventions of the genre otherwise your audience will wonder why this story, and why today?