Meet Evelyn. Just your average girl... But with a thirst for blood. For a vampire, dating apps provide the ultimate menu...

Love in Vein follows Evelyn and Peter. Evelyn is a vampire, who uses a dating app called WinkedIn to lure men in. She never kills them though, only taking what she needs. A vampire with a heart. Peter is a mild-mannered photography student, looking for love. Using WinkedIn, he ends up on a date with Evelyn. A romance between them ensues and both of their worlds turn upside down, soon to be further complicated by a spector of Evelyn’s past… 

This film is a passion project with an amazing cast and crew already on board. The team are enthusiastic young creatives who would love to forge their careers in the film industry. In donating to our campaign you would not only be helping bring Evelyn's story to the big screen but also helping us start out with a truly independent film. 

The film is, at its core, a satirical exploration of online dating and the expectations that come along with that. Are we who we portray ourselves to be? Not just physically but emotionally as well.

Love In Vein began its life as a short film made for my final year of film school. I had a rough, early draft of the film that I had written a couple years earlier. I decided to revisit it, adapting a small section of it from Evelyn’s perspective. 

The short premiered at Romford Horror Festival to a warm reception, with further screenings at Brighton Rocks and the Duke of York's Picturehouse in Brighton.

Critic John Locke said of the short…

‘Phillip Brown’s accomplished short film deftly steps between horror, comedy and social commentary in a manner that suggests that here is a talented filmmaker that we will be hearing a lot more from in the future.’

https://johnlockeactor.com/dir/2021/10/29/phllip-brown-love-in-vein/ 

With the positive reception of the film, I decided to go back to the original screenplay and rewrite it, with a deeper exploration into Evelyn’s perspective and refining story beats that I felt could be improved. 

The feature is referential of classic 80’s vampire films such as Fright Night, The Hunger and The Lost Boys; borrowing similar aesthetic sensibilities, but with our own modern twist.

There's a lot of makeup work in the film, and we'd like to incorporate more practical, in-camera, effects. This is both in reference, and homage, to the films that have inspired this project but also in an attempt to make the film feel grounded and tactile.

The film is based in Brighton, our primary filming location. We plan to explore the pop art nature of the city in our exterior shoots. By moving away from a more typical London setting, this will give the film a colourful and unique locale which hasn't been represented often in this kind of genre.

We’ve begun shooting some scenes of the film, using personal funds. The three leads of the film have been cast; Millie Maxwell as Evelyn, Saul Bache as Peter and Sam Bates as Peter’s best friend, Lars. Many of our amazing crew are Screen and Film School alumni, who worked on the short, as well as some new faces who work within the industry. Everyone on the crew has been incredibly generous with their time, offering their support out of passion and excitement for the project.

As we all work full time jobs, we've been shooting in small blocks on weekends. We're incredibly proud of the footage we've shot so far, and because of that, we feel that certain upcoming scenes in the script could be further amplified through the support of crowdfunding.

Thank you

Thank you to everyone who has read this far and a massive thank you to anyone who donates towards making this film become a reality. We are extremely grateful for any donation, big or small and are we are excited to show you the final product.

We feel that, with your support, we’ll be able to maximize our production values, cover permits and location fees, and to be able to utilize more in-camera practical effects and prosthetics to truly encapsulate that old school, 80s horror, aesthetic.