By Nia Edwards-Behi
Since its premiere at last year’s Film4 FrightFest, Abigail Blackmore’s short Vintage Blood has played countless festivals and received rave reviews. It’s finally being released online from 12pm on Monday, May 30th and I heartily recommend giving it a watch. It’s easily one of my favourite short films that I saw last year.
The film concerns Liv, a woman who’s recently bought a flat above some shops. When visited by her friend she explains the eerie story about the abandoned shop over the road, where a woman was once obsessed over the destruction of a Ouija board which may otherwise result in the death of her fiancé…
What’s really great about Vintage Blood is that it’s a horror-comedy that’s actually really funny. Blackmore’s comedic chops are evident not only in her performance in the film as Liv, but as director and writer as well. It’s also a breath of fresh air as far as the plot is concerned, and the tone of the humour is delightfully, well, dark and British – the irreverence and sarcasm is exactly the sort of thing I like, and I’m not big comedy fan, generally speaking. The phrase ‘shit the bed!’ has never been put to better use than it has here.
Vintage Blood is really also an excellent calling card for Blackmore, who’s in the early stages of working on her first horror feature. So give the film a watch, and keep an eye out for much more from Blackmore in the near future!
Vintage Blood from Abigail Blackmore on Vimeo.