Horst in Translation ([email protected]) "Blood Pulls a Gun" is an 18-minute live action short film from 2014. It's an Australian/French co-production in the English language directed by Ben Briand and written by Chris Koehler that takes us into the world of a young hotel employee and what happens when an apparently dangerous man rents one of her rooms. It's about guns, about sex, about lust and about (organized) crime, a bit of everything and it's of course impossible to elaborate really convincingly on all these fields in such a brief movie, but I think they did a somewhat decent job overall here. Storytelling is solid and same goes for the atmospheric touch. The lead actress is good for the part and brings a nice touch of innocent desire and temptation into the picture. With the final quote, the movie may be slightly on the pretentious side, but it's not a negative deal breaker by any means. I enjoyed these slightly under 20 minutes. Certainly worth checking out.

David Massey 'Blood Pulls a Gun' stands above the rest. A teenage girl, Alice (Odessa Young), lives with her father in an isolated Australian resort hotel that has seen better days. She spends her time looking through keyholes and alleviates her boredom by stealing little knick-knacks from the few guests that pass through. When a mysterious stranger, played by Josh McConville ('The Infinite Man'), and his lover check in, her life gets much more complicated. Both the performances and the look of the film are excellent but I remember being worried that narrative would take a back-seat to tone and atmosphere. Not so. It is very rare to pull off 'erotic' successfully and this does it in spades. The build in tension is so enthralling and the film's ending is so distressing that I have to give great respect to director, Ben Briand, and writer, Kevin Koehler. I can't wait to see what they do next.