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WATCH: This Maltese Vampire Short Film Will Have You Staked And In Stitches

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Terrified of spotting a hooded figure with fangs in the dead of the night? Well, there’s always ways and means to go about defending yourself… and this hilarious Maltese short film is here to remind you about just that.

Staked, a short film that showed up on Vimeo a couple of days ago, tells the story of John, a guy who was kidnapped by a vampire (as you do, so far so standard).

Instructed to bring victims in order to bargain for his own life, John ropes in his friend Michael (quite literally), but he needs one more victim. And that’s where the short film picks up, with John driving his latest victim to a dark and secluded spot.

That’s when a vampire walks in and shit gets real… but even with such a supernatural genre, you’re still not going to be ready for what happens next.

Without spoiling too much of the already-short film, I’ll just say one thing; get ready to root for the underdog, even if that underdog is bound, gagged and about to be devoured by a superhuman being with fangs.

Coming in at less than four minutes long but punching well above its weight with some cool technical shots and a hilarious twist, Staked is the brainchild of Mike West and Joe Paolella.

“We directed and shot our little short for the Video Nasties Horror short film event,” West explained. “We shot and edited it super quickly by the excellent Joe Paolella and with the help of the brilliant Matteo Alessandro and Sam Andrews.”

A young aspiring writer and director who goes by the cheekily-named pseudonym Average Joe Films, Paolella was born in England but has been living in Malta for the last two decades. Back in 2018, Joe was chosen as Malta’s ambassador with 28 Times Cinema, getting the opportunity to be flown out to Venice Film Festival and take part in a jury for the competition the Giornate Degli Autori.

On a Facebook post shared earlier this week, Joe went into some more detail on how quick the turn-around for this short film was, making the final product even more impressive.

“Shot in one evening, edited the next and then screened at a local event,” he proudly announced. Indeed, Staked premiered just last weekend, on the 29th of February, at Valletta’s CinemaBar.

The film was shot on location at Majjistral Park, where the rangers were kind enough to allow the congregation of weirdly-attired and equipped people to do what they do best.

“I couldn’t have been happier and more honoured such lovely talented people helped to get this made,” West finished. “It was a joy! It’s cool when something comes together.”

Here’s hoping the talented pair – and everyone else involved in this production – get together to work on even more films!

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Lovin Malta's Head of Content, Dave has been in journalism for the better half of the last decade. Prefers Instagram, but has been known to doomscroll on TikTok. Loves chicken, women's clothes and Kanye West (most of the time).

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