Hellspawn
Drama, Short Films, 12-Apr-2023
A group of 20-something creatives attempt to survive the UK advertising industry as their artistic aspirations slip further and further away. Michael Demetriou directs “Hellspawn,” an edgy satire on the inner workings of a hip production company. After making a short film, Hannah is interviewed by Darkregion, which produces commercials and branded content, with the possibility of being represented as a director. She’s cynical about the state of short-form content, either boring or vacuous she insists, but she needs to make a living somehow. For the same company, an actress auditions for a project where she comes under close scrutiny for the way she opens a box. Finally we have a mustached man named Mladsun, another frustrated filmmaker looking for a way up (while a co-worker obsesses over inaccurate film adaptations of comic books). Finely attuned to the expectations, disappointments, and compromises of a life in (or fading away from) the arts, the film paints a sobering picture with elliptical vignettes growing in fury. -KA. Director: Michael Demetriou. Cast: Kitty Douglas, Mladen Marinkovic, Louisa Harris, Stuart Cameron, Matthew Ashforde, Matt Van Niftrik, Jacques Claude Burlinchon, Nuru Mkali, Daniel Rands.