South by Southwest (SXSW) Film Festival – Barb Cramper (Rebekka Johnson) is tired of taking her husband’s crap. She’s also fed up with washing his laundry and getting no respect or affection. Melanie Fischer (Kate Nash) is a small-town TV reporter looking for her big scoop. Barb and Melanie’s lives are suddenly thrust together after a bizarre TV interview. The result is Wild Bitch, an inventive short that’s sharp and funny with some over-the-top scenes topped with a bit of old-fashioned gore.

Johnson and Nash, who also wrote and directed the short, take their roles to the extreme. Their acting makes for a wild 13-minute ride. Set in the 1980s, poofy hair Melanie interviews Barb after her strange encounter with a coyote that forever altered her life. The two then take an eerie trek into the woods, where the circumstances grow stranger and stranger. Barb claims that the coyote is her new partner, and it needs to eat. In particular, it has a ravenous appetite for men. This results in a bit of clever feminist horror that’s a heck of a lot of fun. Men don’t last too long in this one, let’s just say. But they deserve what’s coming to them.

It’s oddly endearing to see Johnson and Nash’s quirky characters mesh so well eventually. They seemingly have nothing in common, other than the fact they feel pushed down by the larger world. For Barb, it’s her hubby. For Melanie, it’s the feeling she’s going to be stuck at a small TV station for the rest of her life. They bond over the limitations they feel have been unfairly thrust upon them. Eventually, you sort of start rooting for these two, especially Barb, initially a mousy housewife who turns into a monstrous force.

While Wild Bitch doesn’t take itself too seriously, it does have something to say about the treatment of women and the effects of environmental devastation on the natural world. It seems like Nash and Johnson had one heck of a good time making this. That’s especially apparent in their performances. Wild Bitch is a rip-roaring good time that’s not afraid to address more serious issues. This has lots of potential for a feature.

8 Out of 10