from: www.RazorReel.be

"The Vampire Assassin" is a low budget vampire action movie, starring the unknown Stefani Brown as Veronica, whose first assignment is to kill her best friend.

A rich and spoiled vampire Veronica has been leading a bohemian lifestyle in Eastern Europe for centuries; terrorizing and killing people from the countryside for no other reason but shear fun. Upon returning to the USA she is summoned by her clan Elders and given a fair choice. Either she will be rejected from the clan (The Draguls), or she can become a vampire assassin! The latter means she has to kill-off vampires whose bloodlust is to great and therefore attract too much attention from the humans.

The 18 minutes short explains things as well as possible in a style that is part documentary, part action film. Filmed as if it was reality TV, this short flick might visually be low-budget stuff, the story and plot is carefully thought through. Based upon a realm created earlier for a full feature called "Bloodlust", the vampires in this world are either pure blood vampires (born vampires you could say) or converts, people who'd get bitten by a pure vampire but somehow escaped death and converted into mutated humans. It is usually these so called converts who attract too much attention and kill for joy. While the clan Elders keep the clan together, they also have a hidden agenda in getting rid of the converts. These converts expose themselves too much and by doing so also demystify the vampire myth. The Elders fear total elimination, once the vampire myth becomes a fact in the human world. As I said the film is low budget and that is easily seen, however some effects are done in a proper way and with some decent props! Take for instance the scene where Veronica rips of the head of one of her targets! Through a series of extras you can see how things were done for that scene and how much care and attention this simple moment in the storyline really took. One is able to witness how effects are done the old-fashioned way, which included a totally different craftsmanship then what's done with the CGI effects of today. Sure things are less realistic then with the computer images at times, but still I'm a fan of the old style! The DVD comes with two versions of the film. A tame version and an feral version, both are about 18-19 minutes long.

Although I can't hail this short as the best thing I've seen in years, it's certainly a nice feature that makes me wonder what "Bloodlust" is all about (as I haven't seen it yet. One thing is sure though, Michael Kazlo shows great potential in making films and telling stories! Let's hope we hear more of the man in the future.