By Keri O’Shea
Vampires vs. werewolves, in a film directed, produced, edited and starring the same person? Wait – a twelve-minute film? I have to say, my curiosity was piqued by just what Seize the Night would be able to achieve in that short time frame. As you might expect, there’s a lot of ambition involved here – though I would say that the film acts as a taster rather than a straightforward narrative, as the eagerness to get ideas on screen overstretches the constraints of this particular medium.
To quote a few sentences of the press release for context, ‘the plot revolves around renegade vampire assassin Eva (Emma Dark) who’s recently escaped from a secret bio-research compound and is hell bent on taking revenge against those who put her there, including a pack of werewolves led by alpha Tobias (Carey Thring), and a secret government faction known only as Cable 9.’
Vampire assassin, fighting werewolves…well, indeed, there is a deal of overlap between Seize the Night/Underworld and Eva/Selene and I hope it’s not an insult to say that the newer film wears this relationship very much on its sleeve; I mean, how could it not? There are similarities in terms of theme (duh), aesthetics, the closely-matching colour palette, lots of washed-out urban nightscapes and of course the goth-friendly garb worn by our protagonist. If you enjoyed the Underworld films then you will probably see this short, appreciate it, and wonder if it’s the calling card for a feature. It does some things on its own terms, mind, and if you can believe it – reminder, this is a twelve minute film – Seize the Night packs in a mention of a deadly virus and some killer covens too. Now, as ambitious as all of this is, I think I’d like to see the film slow down a tad, explore its ideas more and not feel that it has to do everything to show it could do anything. However, now that I’ve seen the film and read some other reviews, it appears that – as usual – I’m out on a limb here…
The urban sprawl is nicely shot throughout, and the film’s evocative soundtrack by Eric Elick is something very special. On board for the film’s short action sequence is none other than Roy Scammell, by the way, so Dark is clearly in good company. Overall, there’s a real eagerness for the subject matter being tackled here, an eagerness which sometimes trips over itself to get it all out there, but clearly Emma Dark loves what she’s doing and I hope to cast an eye over her other films sometime soon. In the meantime, the film is now available to view for free via Vimeo: you can check it out here.