I first heard of Nicholas M. Garofolo back in 2019 when I reviewed the short horror film Deranged Foxhole. Since then I have seen several short films that he has been in, with one of his recurring roles being Dave Slade. Feeding on the Living is the third Dave Slade film, having not seen all the previous ones it did mean I was a bit confused where things stood on the timeline.
This synopsis is the film as I saw it, so I might be incorrect on some elements. Coney Island based Dave Slade (Garofolo) has given up his time-travelling ways and decided to try and live a normal life. He is contacted by his former handler (Dave Sweeny who also directed and co-wrote this alongside Garofolo) and warned to stay away from a certain woman. Ignoring these words, Slade decides to approach a mysterious woman he spots, Alvara (Arina Ozerova) and talking with her he realises she is a vampire, though she teleports away before he is able to attack her. It turns out her psychotic boyfriend Silas (Warren Chao) is also a vampire, and that he has a particular bone to pick with Slade as he has the knowledge that in 2030 Slade will kill him.
Feeding on the Living is just over twenty six minutes long and uses that time frame in a compact fashion. I have to admit that my memories of previous short films Garofolo has starred in had me remembering them as being very low budget and a bit rough looking. I was surprised then at just how good this short looks. Constraints are used to add mood and vibe, rather than something that held the filmmakers back. A key example is that the majority of this short is set at night, yet the scenes were obviously filmed in daylight with a blue filter used. You can see the sun shining off the sea, people walking along holding shopping bags, and an artificial filter put over the night sky to show stars. This all added a surreal feel that perfectly complimented the off-kilter story. Special effects were another idea that were used to great...well, effect. I particularly liked the look of a vampire who had holy water thrown in their face, the steam on screen obviously wasn't real, but something about it just worked.
The story could occasionally be hard to follow, but this third film in the series doesn't do too much to try and fill viewers in, I did appreciate the couple of flashback sequences to events in previous entries. Slade is a character who never appears completely serious, he is treated as a threat at times, yet whenever he speaks he has lines that can always be taken as comedic. I thought Chao was great as a bad guy, loving the way he said his lines. I also thought the fight montage between him and Slade later on was pretty amusing.
Maybe the highlight of the whole film was the wonderful soundtrack, there are a variety of songs and instrumental tunes played and all fitted perfectly into this, even led me to watching the entire end credits due to liking the music playing. As always, this is filmed at Coney Island, and gives a really unique look, I do like that so many short films Garafolo stars in are set in this iconic location.
My expectations were low for this, but I had a blast watching this. Occasionally scenes of dialogue between characters felt a little long winded and unnatural sounding, but outside of this, I loved the surreal feel to the film and enjoyed this far more than I expected. Feeding on the Living can currently be viewed on YouTube and has been picked up by Fawesome TV & OTT Studio.
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