In Seize The Night, Eva Harker (Emma Dark) is a vampire on the run, making her way through the seedy underbelly of London. After escaping from some kind of government prison/research facility/torture room, she finds out that somebody is killing other vampires, and she has been targeted. A few old friends help her get the weapons she needs, and a few werewolf enemies awkwardly bare their fangs and growl at her. And then a big explosion leaves everything on a cliffhanger. I’m assuming the filmmaker wants this to become a web series or something, hence the abrupt, unsatisfying end to this first short.

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If she intended this to be a stand-alone story, then she really missed the mark.

The “she” I’m referring to is writer, director, producer, editor and star Emma Dark, a model-turned-filmmaker whose Seize The Night has recently been released. Is it worth your time?

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The film is in moody black and white, and uses light and shows very effectively. Dark’s framing is mysterious and slinky, and there are very noir-ish overtones to many scenes. Whoever did the fangs for this short did a fabulous job. They’re natural-looking, even when they’re oversized and monstrous.

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Unfortunately, the rest of it’s not really on par with what I’ve already mentioned. The acting, writing, and plot (such as it is) are lackluster and very by-the-numbers. Ms. Dark makes some odd editorial choices throughout the movie as well, like flashing the time onscreen and showing somebody’s watch displaying the same time at the…same time. The pacing is slow and languid, which seemed odd for a movie about an assassin being hunted. There was no sense of urgency and, although she tries gamely with a couple fight sequences, it’s just not her forte.

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Ms. Dark is obviously passionate about what she’s doing here, and I wish I could recommend this more fully. Alas, I can think of many other ways I wish I’d spent that thirteen minutes. Uncle Mike sez: Meh.

About the Author

Mike Hansen has worked as a teacher, a writer, an actor, and a haunt monster, and has been a horror fan ever since he was a young child. Sinister Seymour is his personal savior, and he swears by the undulating tentacles of Lord Cthulhu that he will reach the end of his Netflix list. Someday.

One Comment

  1. phillip smart May 9, 2016 at 2:58 pm

    OH MY GOD! .. 13 minutes of my life i wont get back. for one her acting is dreadful. this Short/shite should be a indication to her to never act again, that would be one good thing too come out of this mess of a short.
    All i see was an wannabe underworld rip-off, Why make a short with not one bit of originality.
    who wrote the script, an 8 year old ?? … “i used to kill for money” & “ok, im in” said like a petulant teenager. shocking
    So glad you had the balls to review this properly, all i read on other review sites was how good this is ..
    Has AWARDS… OMFGG …. this clearly shows how bad the indie scene is right now, if THIS is benchmark short :O

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