Parasite Lady

Living in a run-down motel, a female vampire using a local carnival as a hunting ground falls in love with a young woman and brings her into a relationship together but when an inter-dimensional host comes to check on her finds a deadly choice must be made.

This here was a pretty solid and likable arthouse vampire short. That comes about mainly from the fine visual aesthetics on display, opting for a near-silent experience of her mental anguish wandering through society trying to pick off victims without being detected. Utilizing an array of filters, colored lighting, camera speed trickery, and bombastic musical stings to offset the minimal dialog, it's quite easy to get a sense of the old-school European arthouse style featured here even before realizing the action accompanying all of it in its footsteps as well. Featuring her journey to gather victims, bringing them back to the hotel hideout to seduce them, allowing her disciple to join her ranks, or following her daily routine looking out over the world, there's a really fine touch on this one to really propel this alongside the cheesy yet effective gore for quite a lot to like. This is really only hurt in the finale where the lack of dialogue and short running time means it can't really explain what's happening so it's all rather confusing with the arthouse style here not making a lot of this come together. This isn't too bad, though, and still means that there's a lot to like here.

Rated Unrated/R: Graphic Violence and Nudity.

A brilliant and immersive experience. The whole thing is akin to dipping a toe into another world. There's something richly unnerving about Chris Alexander's return to rundown motels in which to house his horror: abandoned and lonely places, and no-one knows what goes on inside.

I loved especially the use of colour and lighting in this, his latest film. At times, hallucinogenic and at others, strangely calming; the red hair echoing the red chair, bringing the room to life, for example; the black silhouette in the corner, itself a shadow cast.

By contrast, the coldness of winter sun provides reason to escape the outside, and the soundtrack is, as always swirling, tumbling and wonderful, adding much to the sense of delirium.

Marrielle Edwards is great as the title character - and rarely for these types of films, she even has some dialogue; only a minimal amount, of course. And why not? This is a world removed from everything, which exists side by side with society, a fun fair ... but no one is aware of it. Just us!

This is what horror should be, if it can even be defined at all. Here's to many more of Chris's fascinatingly macabre projects.

Chris Alexander has an European soul and eye when he films..evocative melancolía, unattainable love with the beautiful wrapping of vampirism. No need for many words when the imaginary is so powerful! As in his other films, the female aura, power of creation and destruction is interpreted by these actresses sirens with their hypnotizing roles!

Such an immersive trip in another era, other hues, the price of lust being absolute cosmic loneliness and never ending thirst. Is it a metaphorical fantasy? You be the judge of the bloody ride!

Turn off the lights and enjoy Parasite Lady with a glass of giallo red wine!

I am sure there is a drama teacher out there thinking this is a work of art for the elites, but for us normal folks ... RUN!

Talk about low budget, I bet the motel 6 room rental was their biggest expense. And the script ... WHAT script? I am sure there was a storyboard, probably a dozen or so slides, but other than that? ... c'mon. You read more signs than anything else over the 42 minutes. I am pretty sure there wasn't a single word spoken.

Oh there are thespians that would love to spend 42 hours talking about the symbology, and your drama/film teacher would give high marks. If that is what you are into, be my guest. But outside of the actors guild, this probably has little to no value.

Oh, and don't forget about the SIGNIFICANT company that put this on ... and you see all of their names during the opening credits (how could they have possibly found that much work for them to do on this?).

Okay, cards om the table, I really do not know of I liked this or not. I can respect the vision and I can see what the director was attempting to do here. But I have some issues. First of all, it seemed to just jump around. There did not seem to be any coherence in the story. Now I know that art house movies are a law unto themselves and don't have to follow any rules, look at the work of David Lynch. But I personally do need something to follow...anything. Now the plus side, this is a gorgeous looking film. The visuals are a sumptuous treat. The colours and the music all set the mood and tone, so there is that.

It is a lovely movie to look at, but not much story to it.