THE HORROR OF BERNARD

Provence. A terrible killer is sowing panic among the citizens: the victims are preferably young women and the methods of their death are always the same, through exsanguination, to the point that the newspapers have already dubbed the killer Countess Dracula. Private investigator André Duvall is conducting the investigations, until his encounter with the orphan Charlotte Bernard will lead to an important turn in the case of the Countess Dracula. In his third short film, after "Delirium 464" and "Antithesis", young director Francesco Mirabelli aims high, crafting a period film with an unusual narrative breadth for a short film. According to the historical setting – presumably at the beginning of the 1890s, although there is no dating – and geographical, beyond the name of Countess Dracula, it is clear that the reference model for "The Horror of Bernard" is that vampiric genre characteristic of the early 1970s, especially the productions of the English Hammer. The references to the famous Bloody Countess Erzsébeth Báthory, which by extension go to "Carmilla" by Le Fanu, are evident, although – precisely in tune with certain Hammer experimentalisms of the early 1970s – a heavy contamination with the story of Jack the Ripper and his followers is evident. The fact is that "The Horror of Bernard" strikes precisely for its desire to expand into something more than just a short film, it has a breadth of scope and an overall quality that give us the impression of being faced with a more complex work than the average horror short film made by young filmmakers in Italy. The story proceeds in an interesting manner and knows how to place a nice plot twist at the end, not entirely unpredictable but certainly suitable for the story. Giuliana Checa's screenplay is well constructed both for the interlocking of the events narrated and for the proper delineation of the characters, and when you have only a few minutes available, achieving this goal is already a victory. The contextualization of the phantom Countess Dracula is somewhat less convincing, there is insufficient background to frame this character (why a Countess? Who said the killer is a woman?), which seems more of a homage due to the Gothic tradition than a real element useful to the story and the investigation. Actors Gabriele Shepard and Alice Tieghi are convincing, sufficiently immersed in their roles, although the protagonist appears perhaps a bit too young to credibly hold the role of the detective. Good work has been done with the music by Lorenzo Maresca and the photography, which in some points – also in tune with Mirabelli's previous shorts – makes a suggestive use of bright colors, in perfect tune with 1970s horror cinema. Costumes and sets betray the historical setting at times. "The Horror of Bernard" is a fun and well-made work, obviously not perfect also due to the titanic task of making a no-budget period horror, but the effort is evident and the result entirely satisfactory. Watch the entire short film THE HORROR OF BERNARD