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2008 - 27m.

As a medium short films have their good and bad points. Thanks to the lower cost of making one, and the shorter running time, filmmakers often use them to try and breakthrough into feature-length films. On the other hand, a lot of them take the opportunity of a more stream-lined and compact format to try new things they might not if they were forced to fill ninety-minutes of time. Which can be a rub in some ways because a lot of times these experiments are rendered unwatchable by the filmmakers' over-exuberance and lack of focus. From Scott W. Perry and his Slick Devil Entertainment, Insatiable does have a lot of these elements but comes out generally unscathed and makes for a mostly interesting twenty-seven-minutes.

The story Perry tells here is pretty straightforward even if they way he does it is not. It opens with an apparent vampire attack as our main character (Mike Lane) finishes video taping himself killing and sucking the blood of a female victim. But he's not really a mythical fanged creature, instead just being a serial killer who wears fake fangs and is fixated with them. Upon leaving the hotel he spots what he thinks is a hooker and they have an immediate, odd connection.

Back at home, he's keeping his video tapes (and jars of his victim's blood) secret from his wife (Zoe Daelman Chlanda) who is beginning to question the relationship since they spend most of their time ignoring each other while questions of infidelity run through her head. But that's all about to change when his "hobby" is found out and our mystery woman returns into the picture with quite a secret to reveal.

Like I said above, Perry keeps things on a pretty linear path only instead of filling his movie with excess dialogue or even giving his characters names he's decided that he'd use absolutely no talking within the movie instead relying on the musical score, sound effects, and actors expressions to convey the story. It's certainly not a new idea and has been implemented in indie productions before (the most recent example being Tony Marsiglia's Suzie Heartless) but it's actually used to decent effect here - especially during a dream sequence that's meant to look like a gothic silent horror movie from the 1920's that is a great idea and gives the film it's most striking moment as Lane's past victims, wrapped in clear plastic, observe him being intimate with a vampire woman before coming back to life and surrounding him. I'd wager that it's Perry trying to inject some guilt into his main character but it works more for its style than mental impact.

Insatiable finishes up with a bit of blood and mild gore but is pretty slender on action and more heavy on his actors casting lonely stares into the distance. Which isn't particularly a bad thing since his cast does relatively well with the material. Lane and Chlanda both appeared together earlier in the highly entertaining redneck horror flick, The Blood Shed and Raine Brown (who's been busy in tons of b-movies including the upcoming remake of Don't Look in the Basement!) brings a "can't put my finger on it" attraction to her character in her brief screen time. And, speaking of The Blood Shed, indie flick credit watchers will note that Alan Rowe Kelly (who directed it) did the make-up here and Fangoria's Michael Gingold makes a brief cameo as well.

A solidly made and moderately successful short, Insatiable gets points simply for trying something different. Rather than be yet another no-budget vampire/zombie/slasher movie, Perry is trying for something more. Here's hoping he continues along that path with his next project. (Chris Hartley, 3/9/09)

Directed By: Scott W. Perry.
Written By: Scott W. Perry.

Starring: Mike Lane, Zoe Daelman Chlanda, Raine Brown, Jessie May Laumann.