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.
