It’s nighttime, and a young woman named Viola (Steffani Pieart) walks alone through a darkened street. Approaching a mansion-style home she knocks and, in lieu of a welcome, is told by the tall somber gentleman who answers the door (Andrew, played by Robert Webster) that she will have to surrender her car keys. Viola was expecting this, but in doing so she realizes what a ‘big step’ she’s taking.
Once inside Viola is also relieved of her purse and required to submit to a search before being directed to where she is to wait for “Her.” Viola is warned that this is the last chance she has to change her mind, but declines to do so.
Going through a doorway and down a flight of stairs, Viola enters a brick room bare except for several candles burning on the floor. As she shivers in near darkness the shadowy figure of a woman, shrouded in veils and carrying a cane, enters the room and begins to interrogate the girl. It soon becomes clear that Viola wishes to meet a vampire; a real one, not one of those “wannabes” who simply appropriate the lifestyle. And she doesn’t just want to meet one, she wants to become one.
“You may remove the dress now,” the woman says, apparently satisfied with Viola’s earnestness. As Viola undresses she asks her hostess some elementary questions about vampirism, and after some simple answers the woman grows impatient and demands that Viola remove her undergarments as well. Again the girl is asked if she has told anyone where she was and what she will be doing, and again Viola swears she’s told no one. “I won’t be missed,” she says.
Tying Viola’s hands together with a piece of cord hanging from the ceiling, the woman raises her arms and suspends Viola in the middle of the room. “What is the knife for, ma’am?” the girl asks, just before she and the audience receive a series of surprises. But even when you think it’s all over, the end is still yet to come…
A simple and elemental movie, Wannabe possesses the atmosphere of an occult snuff film. And this is what makes it succeed as a short film: without giving too much away, the film also serves as a brief and insightful meditation on human nature, one that makes excellent sense after the first round of revelations. The timing is right, the acting and the effects are not overplayed, and the story achieves that rarest of qualities, the element of surprise. In a rather unsettling fashion, by the way.
The selection of Steffani Pieart, a real woman, over some corseted Goth fashion model is very effective, and Robert Webster is a creepy fuck indeed. As for the mistress of the house, well, we never do see her face. All told, the film succeeds in avoiding most stereotypes and crafting a real slice of horror.
A definite candidate for the indie horror fest circuit.
– Tom Crites
- Interview with J.R. Bookwalter - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Andrew J. Rausch - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Rick Popko and Dan West - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Director Stevan Mena (Malevolence) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Screenwriter Jeffery Reddick (Day of the Dead 2007) - January 22, 2015
- Teleconference interview with Mick Garris (Masters of Horror) - January 22, 2015
- A Day at the Morgue with Corri English (Unrest) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Writer/Director Nacho Cerda (The Abandoned, Aftermath) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Actress Thora Birch (Dark Corners, The Hole, American Beauty) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Actor Jason Behr, Plus Skinwalkers Press Coverage - January 22, 2015
