With director Charles de Lauririka’s short film Love Bite set to premiere this Sunday night at the prestigious Sitges Film Festival in Barcelona, Spain (10/6 at 12:45 AM), we’ve got an exclusive first look at the short zombie flick’s trailer, poster, and a few exclusive stills to boot.
Directed by Lauzirika (whose previous credits include the feature psychological thriller Crave, starring Edward Furlong and Ron Perlman, as well as over a 100 behind-the-scenes documentaries and featurettes) from a script he co-wrote with Carlee Baker, Love Bite is set (according to the official synopsis) “in the not-distant-at-all future, (in which) a zombie apocalypse of flesh-craving, salivating ‘droolers’ is the least of combative couple George (Cuyle Carvin) and Nancy’s (Carlee Baker) troubles.”
Presented by Iron Helmet and produced by Lauzirika, Baker, Jamie Davenport, and Andrea Flader with cinematography by Kyle Deitz, the seventeen-minute Bakerika production Love Bite was shot earlier this year over the course of three days in a disused cement plant in Fayetteville, Georgia, just minutes away from where The Walking Dead is filmed. Fortuitous, as many of Love Bite’s crew and extras were TWD vets and brought their experience working with the undead to the table.
Said Lauzirika of crafting Love Bite, “Carlee’s original idea was a little twisted, but in a fun way. But once I started working on the script with her, and visualizing this particular scenario with zombies, the end of the world, etc., I realized it needed to be more grounded so that I could invest more in the characters. So when I considered real people in a post-apocalyptic situation, I immediately felt that current real-world events, especially with America’s deep political divide at the moment, and how it’s impacting the environment, education, science – all these critically important things – that going a little more political in the subtext would make things more interesting for me, and allow us for a way to vent our frustrations with everything we see in the news.”
Added Baker (whose film and television credits include Lucky McKee’s celebrated indie feature The Woman and the Emmy award-winning series Robot Chicken, among others), “The initial idea for Love Bite originated from a dream I had, and, as things are wont to do, changed pretty significantly from initial concept to finished product. I originally pictured the story to be a lot more humorous and a lot less intense, as the main characters began as a long-suffering married couple in their mid 60’s who have been arguing about anything and everything for the past several decades prior to the zombie apocalypse.”
We’ve been lucky enough to get a look at film, which is a dark and twisted take on the sometimes funny, sometimes tragic dynamics of breaking up in a world on the brink of breaking down, with great performances by its cast. That, and Love Bite looks like a million bucks.
Oh, and there’s an adorable dog too.
Check out the trailer (embedded at the top of the article), poster, and a handful of exclusive images from Love Bite below, and for more on the film and to stay up to date on its festival run, you can ‘like’ them on Facebook HERE and follow them on Twitter @LoveBiteShort and on Instagram @LoveBiteShort. Lastly, for those lucky enough to be in Spain on 10/6, visit the Sitges website HERE for Love Bite premiere screening info.