“The Ghost That Wouldn’t Die”
A review by Nathan Thomas Milliner
I’ve always loved the idea of a trilogy. A writer creates a world and its characters and you fall in love with them. You hate to leave them. You want to know what comes next or maybe what came before? I started out in comics and in that medium an “ending” is rarely finite. It’s just where we stop in an ongoing story.
It’s been nearly a decade and I still hope to complete my “Birdcage” trilogy that began with “The Encyclopedia Satanica” and followed by “Fear, For Sinners Here.” Both short films that appeared in the two “Volumes of Blood” anthology films. I have a third script but no idea when or if it will ever get made. But I would really like to complete the trilogy one day.
Friend and fellow Filmmaker Mathew Packman has just finished the second installment of his own trilogy that started with “Real Cool Time”. While my Birdcage Trilogy is more connected by themes and setups but no actual continuing stories/characters, Packman’s inspired trilogy will be a more traditional one. At its core it is a sequel to his 2020 feature film “Morbid Colors.” In that film, we are introduced to Devin Crane (played by Lanae Hyneman), an introverted guitarist and sister to a strange girl named Myca who had been turned into a blood sucking vampire and sets out looking for the woman who damned her.
Packman wasn’t finished with Devin after releasing his second feature film and in fact the pair of Packman and Hyneman have co-created this world and character over the course of the three films thus far. While Mathew is credited as the writer/director, Devin Crane and her story were built by a close creative relationship between the director and his lead actress.
Together, Packman and Hyneman made the first chapter of his sequel trilogy with the short film “Real Cool Time” where Devin—who has also been turned into a vampire—is the head of a successful band but is the center of controversy of which an ambitious writer corners the elusive rocker to hopefully strike gold with an interview.
Now comes the second chapter, “The Ghost That Wouldn’t Die.” Packman delivers a short film that finds Devin (Hyneman) trapped on tour with her band and facing an inevitable brick wall as her addiction to blood-coupled with the trials and crimes that her management have spent a lot of money covering up—are knocking at her door and demanding resolve.
But there is no resolve for Devin. This isn’t an addiction that rehab or will power can mend. This is a curse that she is haunted by and with each victim she takes, Devin leaves a graveyard of destroyed lives.
It’s once again an intimate portrait of Devin’s waking nightmare of thirst and self-destruction. Devin is our narrator, collecting her pain in the pages of her journal (inspired by the tour diaries of punk legend and lead singer of Black Flag, Henry Rollins). We find Devin in just the next hotel room of endless hotel rooms, lying next to two unclothed new victims of her thirst that can never be quenched. An endless cycle of murder and damnation.
Shot and colored once again by filmmaker Jakob Bilinski in a black and white grainy style that gave me Jim Jarmusch vibes along with Fessenden’s “Habit” which I noted in my review of the feature film. With the addictive direction of the narrative, Ferrara’s “The Addiction” also came to mind. Funny enough in the PR packet I just looked over, Packman literally sites those three exact filmmakers as this segment’s biggest inspirations. But Bilinski isn’t just on board to handle the visuals. Jakob—an accomplished film director himself (Compression, Three Tears on Bloodstained Flesh) along with his collaborator Emily Jean Durchholz (Compression) have joined this duo as part of the creative team behind this ongoing trilogy.
The film also features one of the stars of my unfinished trilogy, actor Kevin Roach (The Encyclopedia Satanica, The Confession of Fred Krueger, Compression, Harvest Lake), who here plays Devin’s manager/handler. But this installment is really taking place in the head of Devin—the people in her life are shadows shaking their heads at her and trying to get through. But there is no getting through. Her problems are unfixable and all that lies ahead is more ruin.
I look forward to the conclusion of this tale which Packman is currently co-writing with Lanae.