Having just finished "Tales from the Lodge" I thought I'd hunt down the short film that Abigail Blackmore wrote and directed prior "Vintage Blood" I found it, watchable in its entirety on the Screen Anarchy website.
Two friends, Liv (Abigail Blackmore) and Charlotte (Ruth Syratt) are looking out over a small shopping arcade to the rear of a house that Liv has just moved into. Noting that one of the shops has "evil" graffitied onto the door, Liv then recounts the story of the shops owner, Izzy (Indira Varma), who was tricked into purchasing a Ouija board hidden amongst some curtains she's bought. Believing herself cursed, Izzy is given an ultimatum, someone must die in the shop, or her fiancé will the sacrifice.
I quite enjoyed "Vintage Blood". It's only 14 minutes long, which is long enough to tell its story and its story within a story and without outstaying it's welcome. There are plenty of recognisable faces, Indira Varma obviously, but Finlay Robertson plays her fiancé and Michael Rosen her fellow shop owner. Sophie Thompson is the most obvious acting crossover with "Tales from the Lodge" but a few little story moments cross over, most notably the issues with the front door and the idea of characters within a story visually filling time, whilst the narrators talk about something else for a moment.
Clearly a step on the way to "Tales from the Lodge", "Vintage Blood" might not have much for the horror purist, but is funny and clever and worth hunting down.
