Horst in Translation (filmreviews@web.de)
"Suckablood" is a 7-minute (well, really 5 minutes only without credits) live action short film from 2012, so almost 5 years old now. And even if some time has passed, it is still among the most known works for everybody involved, in front of the camera and behind it. This also includes Ben Tillett here, who narrates the tale and was a driving force in making it as well. But this is also where the problems start. The narration to me was in a very comedic tone and I could not take it seriously from a dramatic or horror perspective. This applies to the narrator as well as the film in general. It is about a girl, her mother who curses her and an evil creature who appears as a consequence. Somebody will die, that much is safe. But who will it be? Watch for yourself! Or don't as this little film from Britain does not stand out for any reason whatsoever from the huge wave of modern horror short films. I give it a thumbs-down. I was neither scared nor entertained.
Asten Culloski
Genius cinematography and clever structure and progression make Suckablood a very well put-together short film, albeit with an unintentionally comical title. It walks the fine line between a child's cautionary tale and a terrifying horror film, and does it quite gracefully. The narration is perfect and the poem is thoughtful and effective. The only reason I'm not giving it any higher a mark would have to be because of a few clichés and the fact that I would've preferred it to be straight-up terrifying horror film with no child's cautionary tale aspect to it. Though the writing and acting is brilliant, which makes it worth the 7 minutes of your time if you're into horror.
DogFilmCritic
It's amazing what you can find YouTube,by chance I saw the title of this short film and decided to give it a look, I was speechless I could not imagine how they managed to do something so good with few resources.This is clearly influence with German Gothic,The effect of Gothic fiction feeds on a pleasing sort of terror, you have the castle the ghost or in this case a monster, also a lot of influence by the works of Edgar Allan Poe, this was shot in Mddelton Towers giving the story a distinctive Victorian side,you can also compare it to a hammer horror film comparison comes from the colorless of the set mostly dark and gray colors,the protagonist of the story Tilly played majestically by Holly Jacobson i wish her a long career after this, uses a White nightgown making it leap over darker tones in the set making her look pure almost angelic.The other character the step mom (the stereotype that stepmothers are evil in all stories)the make up they used made her features exaggerate looking like Glenn Close would look if she was a witch, then the monster, He looks very grim and menacing as the Green Goblin should have look in Spiderman (2002), overall the story is well told, like all good short story is near the end, very well acted if they can see you are not going to disappoint
cpeter133
This is a beautifully-done fairy tale in the Old World manner; no pretty princesses and no heroes, just a naughty child, a stern parent, and the inevitable punishment. In this case, the child's unforgivable sin is sucking her thumb. The step-mother calls down the curse of Suckablood, a Nosferatu-like creature who...well, it's pretty obvious. The ending is not.It's certainly reminiscent of Tim Burton, but not just a knock-off of his style. It has its own voice and texture, and is genuinely creepy. The voice work is very good, with the narrator bringing to mind Boris Karloff without doing an imitation of him. I recommend this to anyone with a love for dark humor and impressive animation/live action hybrids.
AD
