Fantasia International Film Festival 2023 – Vampires are a good metaphor for loneliness. They spend all of eternity traveling around, feeding on blood, never aging, while anyone mortal they know passes away. Transylvanie is a French short and a tale of a bullied kid who thinks she’s a vampire. Some of the film’s themes resemble Let the Right One In, but it stands on its own just fine.

Directed by Rodrigue Huart, who co-wrote the script with David A. Cassan and Axel Wursten, the short is really Ewa’s (Katell Varvat) story. From the get-go, it’s evident Ewa thinks she’s a vampire. In the opening shot, she stands in her apartment window, speaking to her apparent vampire master, promising to find someone to turn. From there, we get a brief view into Ewa’s world, and it’s not pleasant. Kids torment her for doing things like, well, pocketing dead rats and exhibiting abnormal behavior. She soon decides to turn an older neighbor boy and quotes a passage from Dracula to him about being at her beck and call once turned.

This short balances humor with horror quite well. Yes, there are plenty of bloody moments, mixed with a bit of absurdity, like the scene when Ewa recites pages from Dracula. The film is also grounded in Ewa’s world and perspective, so you generally start to feel for here, and there’s an ambiguity as to whether or not she’s an actual vampire. Huart certainly has a lot of fun with this, and up until the ending, it’s really up to the viewer to decide whether or not supernatural elements are at play. In terms of sound design, familiar noises, like wind through the trees, heightens the tension. Huart transforms an everyday apartment building location into something spooky and macabre.

Transylvanie’s themes aren’t new. However, Huart’s execution gives a fresh take on the vampire story, transporting viewers into the world of a bullied child who desperately wants the power of the undead. This is a fun fifteen minutes with a few gruesome moments.

7.5 Out of 10