Parasite Lady

Living in a run-down motel, a female vampire using a local carnival as a hunting ground falls in love with a young woman and brings her into a relationship together but when an inter-dimensional host comes to check on her finds a deadly choice must be made.

This here was a pretty solid and likable arthouse vampire short. That comes about mainly from the fine visual aesthetics on display, opting for a near-silent experience of her mental anguish wandering through society trying to pick off victims without being detected. Utilizing an array of filters, colored lighting, camera speed trickery, and bombastic musical stings to offset the minimal dialog, it's quite easy to get a sense of the old-school European arthouse style featured here even before realizing the action accompanying all of it in its footsteps as well. Featuring her journey to gather victims, bringing them back to the hotel hideout to seduce them, allowing her disciple to join her ranks, or following her daily routine looking out over the world, there's a really fine touch on this one to really propel this alongside the cheesy yet effective gore for quite a lot to like. This is really only hurt in the finale where the lack of dialogue and short running time means it can't really explain what's happening so it's all rather confusing with the arthouse style here not making a lot of this come together. This isn't too bad, though, and still means that there's a lot to like here.

Rated Unrated/R: Graphic Violence and Nudity.

The premise definitely sounds like something Roger Corman might have made at any point in the past several decades. Seeing as how this is actually a Full Moon Features production, all I can say is, "close enough." With the names of Charles Band and especially Corman well in mind, I can appreciate the low-budget, "make do with what you have," "make it artsy and people will think it was all on purpose" ethos with which this is obviously made. In fairness, as the minutes tick away this really does come across in significant measure as "Full Moon does arthouse horror" - eat your heart out A24, am I right? It's maybe even a little daring to bring a shoestring film-making approach of the 50s and 60s into the twenty-first century. Why, there's some admirable imagination and hard work that went into this, and even if the "sets" are best described as "bare-bones" and I don't think every choice made here was a good one, I appreciate what writer-director Chris Alexander, and co-producers Band and Ali Chappell, aimed to do. The vision is laudable, including very particular use of lighting.

A considerable list of issues places layers of upper limits on one's enjoyment of 'Parasite lady,' however. The production values are glaringly bare-faced, so crisp and loud yet unpolished that the fundamental image all but hurts one's eyes. The hair, makeup, and costume design, of all things, feel bizarrely heavy-handed - and for lack of more eventful proceedings or discretely disturbing imagery, so do the soundscapes of Alexander and Aaron R. Moore's original music that might otherwise serve more purpose. The fundamental work of the editing is well done yet feels self-indulgent, as do too many shots generally. There is a narrative here, but to be frank it feels weak and is less than fully convincing, or engaging. Some ideas we've seen before yet are worth exploring anew; some ideas just raise a skeptical, somewhat perplexed eyebrow. All this is not helped by deliberate, slow pacing that is meant to accentuate the arthouse vibes but which under the collective circumstances just feels laborious, especially as it deadens the acting.

There's a part of me that actually really likes this. I see what Alexander, his cast, and his crew sought to create, and I see its potential. Despite the deeply inelegant, desperate lack of refinement, there is genuine value in this movie - both on its own merits, and in how it recalls other titles of a like-minded slant. The construction is greatly troubled, like a wound that will not close, but the concept is absolutely one that I can get behind. There's also a part of me that almost completely hates this, for the totality of its weaknesses and shortcomings is an immense burden for any viewer to bear. If the worst impulses were reined in, if the screenplay were developed a little more, if the various elements of the picture's craft were cultivated more thoughtfully and carefully, the words I'm writing would be ones of less abject criticism and more abject praise. Still: this is at once "par for the course" where Full Moon is concerned, and at the same time, a bit inventive and forward-thinking. It's not reinventing the wheel by any measure, and for all its problems it's hard to truly extend one's favor, but I must commend the effort.

Make no mistake, this is something that only the patient and open-minded audience will take to, something for those who like the more artistic side of genre fare and look for the value in even the most tawdry of flicks. This isn't great, but it's not bad, either - but I can also understand how it will come off even more unfavorably in others' eyes, and I fully recognize how generous I tend to be in watching films. One way or another, don't go out of your way for 'Parasite lady,' but if you do come across it and are receptive to fare of this nature, it's worth taking a little look.

Okay, cards om the table, I really do not know of I liked this or not. I can respect the vision and I can see what the director was attempting to do here. But I have some issues. First of all, it seemed to just jump around. There did not seem to be any coherence in the story. Now I know that art house movies are a law unto themselves and don't have to follow any rules, look at the work of David Lynch. But I personally do need something to follow...anything. Now the plus side, this is a gorgeous looking film. The visuals are a sumptuous treat. The colours and the music all set the mood and tone, so there is that.

It is a lovely movie to look at, but not much story to it.

I am sure there is a drama teacher out there thinking this is a work of art for the elites, but for us normal folks ... RUN!

Talk about low budget, I bet the motel 6 room rental was their biggest expense. And the script ... WHAT script? I am sure there was a storyboard, probably a dozen or so slides, but other than that? ... c'mon. You read more signs than anything else over the 42 minutes. I am pretty sure there wasn't a single word spoken.

Oh there are thespians that would love to spend 42 hours talking about the symbology, and your drama/film teacher would give high marks. If that is what you are into, be my guest. But outside of the actors guild, this probably has little to no value.

Oh, and don't forget about the SIGNIFICANT company that put this on ... and you see all of their names during the opening credits (how could they have possibly found that much work for them to do on this?).

A brilliant and immersive experience. The whole thing is akin to dipping a toe into another world. There's something richly unnerving about Chris Alexander's return to rundown motels in which to house his horror: abandoned and lonely places, and no-one knows what goes on inside.

I loved especially the use of colour and lighting in this, his latest film. At times, hallucinogenic and at others, strangely calming; the red hair echoing the red chair, bringing the room to life, for example; the black silhouette in the corner, itself a shadow cast.

By contrast, the coldness of winter sun provides reason to escape the outside, and the soundtrack is, as always swirling, tumbling and wonderful, adding much to the sense of delirium.

Marrielle Edwards is great as the title character - and rarely for these types of films, she even has some dialogue; only a minimal amount, of course. And why not? This is a world removed from everything, which exists side by side with society, a fun fair ... but no one is aware of it. Just us!

This is what horror should be, if it can even be defined at all. Here's to many more of Chris's fascinatingly macabre projects.