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.
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?
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.
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.
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.
