Dracula's Ex-Girlfriend

I had to give the movie a release date here to write this...

Parasocial warning: I have followed Thorn's work for many years now, so as often happens, I have a feeling I know more about her than about most actors or writers, so I can't help but read what I know about her into this short. It doesn't help that this movie covers topics she has covered previously in her work on The Philosophy Tube.

With that in mind, I enjoyed the movie. I am a pessimist by nature, so when the movie was first announced, my initial reaction was somewhat hesitent, since this could have easily been a regurgitation of various clichés, but instead it's actually quite engaging.

The movie is about the meeting of Dracula's girlfriend (Belladonna) and an ex-girlfriend (Fay) she reached out to. Most of the movie is the two of them discussing their lives in a pretty confrontational manner publicly at a restaurant (where they do have a table that is conspicuously far from all other tables).

The pair do feel a little over the top in their antagonism, as they try to... get somewhere in their conversation, but then again, vampires are often depicted as more emotional than humans, so we can maybe assume that's the reason for it.

There are some comedic elements, some of which work better than others, but mostly they are a pretty good way of telling us that Belladonna is hiding her pain from the world and probably from herself as well. Is there anyone who could possibly understand this better than Fay?

Since this is a short, it doesn't cover a lot of ground and basically feels like just an extended scene in a larger story, but that is generally a good way to approach shorts and it definitely works here. There is some character building, but the it also utilizes our expectations of these characters quite nicely. We know what vampires are and we know Dracula, so not that much explanation needed.

This is my favorite of the Nebula originals thusfar and makes even my pessimistic a*s optimistic for their future.

The metaphor is a little in-your-face, but it works. I appreciated the contrast between the horror elements and the light-hearted humor, which also complements the seriousness of the real issue discussed here.

The little "easter eggs" were enjoyable, the acting was ok, the visuals were beautiful, and the small details were compelling.

It manages to be humorous without falling into making fun of the situation that is so dismal to many real people, and it accomplishes this by breaking tension with the absurdity of the fantasy elements, but without undermining the emotional moments of the characters.

Well done!

Too often characters will be entirely one thing or another to ensure you feel one way about them. Dracula's Ex-Girlfriend lets it's two leads be a bit more complex than that. They're not perfect, they're people - albeit ageless people that hide from the sun and crave the blood of the living. Sometimes they're more sympathetic, sometimes they're not, but they're always engaging. The whole film manages that balance wonderfully. It's funny, it's dramatic, it's suspenseful, it's horrifying. Sometimes it's one of these things, other times it's all of them at once. But it still feels cohesive, and the story is driven by the characters and not just the needs of the plot. At a little under 32 minutes it's the perfect length for it's story, with enough time to allow the occasional quiet moment but not so much that you notice the time.

I like Abigail Thorn's Youtube endeavours. She researches her stuff really well. So I was interested to see this. And oh wow, is the dialogue painful. Don't misunderstand, the content that this film attempts to discuss and deal with is serious, important, and essential in today's age. The writing and dreadful direction interfere with the unlying importance of the material however.

Somewhere beneath the absymal production is a good film dealing with important topics just bursting to get free. Sadly, like the characters it doesn't quite get there. That makes it an incredible shame. You can see what's being attempted. You can see how close they could have gotten. It just doesn't hit the mark.

My opinion, and it is just my opinion is that this is catering to those types of people who don't want to do the thinking. They don't want to do the work to understand the topic being presented to them. It's literally the only theory I could develop about how writing this dreadful ever got given a production budget.

The metaphor is a bit in your face but then again the Vampire metaphors have always been in your face for like a century now and still have never gotten old. So there is always something relatable.

The cinematography is quite theatrical and can be a bit monotonous if you are not used to that much, but the characters are fun and the acting is really good. I feel there might be missing a point of catharsis at the end but then again your rarely get that in real life on the matters the movie is dealing with, so It strikes as more relatable as such. Lovely short movie in general, an enjoyable watch that does not overstay its welcome.