The Familiar

If you’re a fan of workplace humor like The Office or Office Space, you will probably have a soft spot in your heart for Sam. As the titular character in writer and director Kody Zimmerman’s short film The Familiar, Sam (Torrance Coombs) has one of the worst jobs imaginable. He’s a familiar for Simon (Paul Hubbard), a 400-year old vampire. For Sam, this once sounded like a perfect job, especially considering the promise that one day he, too, might join the ranks of the living undead. But being a familiar is hard — and often disgusting — work. And after five years of it, Sam is having second thoughts.

Zimmerman manages to make Sam a sympathetic character. Sam narrates the tale, so we’re meant to see things from his sardonic point of view. With his pop culture references and his desire to advance in his career, he’s not particularly dark and brooding. He’s that guy who works in the cubicle next to ours. What makes Sam believable as a character is his voice. This is a character that knows what it means to suffer silently. The Familiar is a small film, but it’s well done with some surprisingly good effects. It may not always be laugh-out-loud funny, but it is amusing. And by the end of it, it has us cheering for Sam, too.

Dead Walkers

They say that the key to success in Hollywood is being able to sum up your film pitch in a single sentence. Well, you don’t have to think to hard to know that Dead Walkers is simply “The Old West… with zombies.” Yes, those beloved undead who have become all the rage in pop culture have finally invaded the typical Western — with not-so-surprising results. The story centers around a bounty hunter named Jack (Michael Shepherd), who has captured a couple of no-good types and is hauling them into the closest town so they can be put on trial. What Jack and his companions don’t expect is that the local townsfolk have been infected. A strange sickness makes them hungry for human flesh and very hard to kill.

Now, normally, I would look at a film like Dead Walkers and assume it didn’t have much to offer. After all, it’s a Western with zombies. That’s a pretty odd mash-up. But something about this short film from director Spencer Estabrooks grabbed my interest from the beginning. Maybe it’s the beautiful cinematography and outstanding makeup. Maybe it’s Shepherd’s portrayal of the rugged Old West bounty hunter. Or maybe — crazy as it sounds — it was the zombies. I haven’t seen a lot of zombie Westerns, and this film dared to be different. It’s amusing, action-packed, and leaves you wanting more. Not a bad way to spend 13 minutes.