First Bite (2020)

First Bite is not a short film which sets out to reinvent any particular genre – but what it does, it does very nicely. It gets good things out of its key elements and, in a little over six minutes, it manages at least one ‘wince’ moment to boot. It’s also set at a metal gig and, so much do I miss going to concerts that even the events in the film look oddly appealing. But that’s probably just me…

A surprising amount of the film’s running time – I suppose you could call it surprising, anyway – is dedicated to vomit. See, Alex (Catherine Saindon) is feeling none too well. Holing up in a filthy bathroom, she can’t stop throwing up. Friend Olivia (Hana Kashaf) comes to find her, concerned, but gets sharply rebuffed; Alex doesn’t want to let anyone see her like this. She reveals that she can’t keep anything down, and what the hell is that on her arm?

So you can probably take a guess at where this is all going, and that’s okay. All in all, though, it’s a worthwhile trip. The film looks very slick, whilst at the same time pretty repellent in terms of the bathroom stall where we spend most of the time. There are some decent, grisly effects, a nasty-looking wound, blood trickling from Alex’s mouth and of course, albeit that it’s mostly achieved through sound rather than visuals, some pretty grim vomiting, which is enough to make you queasy in itself. When Alex finally emerges from the stall, the film takes a momentary nasty turn, which did make me flinch. First Bite is a cool calling card, and I can’t help but think that I would like to see this extended out to a feature: what we need more of is heavy metal horror.