VENDETTA
A chilling short London thriller set within the vice industry of Soho.
Starring: Stephen Moore, Frank Harper & Alice Henley
Written & Directed by Leo De Haan, Cinematography by Alex Ryle, Art Direction Lucy Levene, Edited by Nigel Galt & Leo De Haan, Music by Richard Canavan, Sound Design Howard Bevan, Visual Effects and Colour Grading MPC London,
Length 15 mins, shot on 16mm on location in London, England.
SYNOPSIS
Released from prison after a 30-year stretch for a brutal murder, Dennis isn’t your typical middle-aged ex-con. He may be a free man, but he’s being watched by someone even more dangerous than himself.
London is a different city from the place Dennis left behind. The people, the places – everything has changed. Even his home is not his own any more. But some things remain the same: the girls working the streets at the seedy heart of the capital. Starved of female company for three decades, can Dennis be trusted – or will the violent killer who lurks within him reappear during his next encounter?
What Dennis doesn’t know is that a menacing stranger with a score to settle is following him. Exhausted and twisted with grief, Davey is convinced there is only one way to finally find the peace he so desperately craves: by tracking down the man responsible for the violent death of his sweetheart.
While Davey plots his revenge, Dennis plans a meeting with Vicki: a young prostitute struggling to survive in London’s cold and sleazy sex industry. Will Vicki become Dennis’s latest victim? Or will Dennis become Davey’s first?
Director's statement
I wanted to create something unflinchingly voyeuristic around these 3 characters. Looking at this seemingly sweet old man, could he really be all that bad? What grimy lengths some people go through in their everyday lives. I wanted to play with perceptions. All within a London at its seediest, away from what everybody sees on the surface, journeying into a darker capital that exists somewhere below our noses, if you look hard enough.