Movies
[Short Film Review] ‘Guy’s Trade’ Has Bite!
Ozploitation films have been on the rise since the 2000s, with neo-classics like Wolf Creek and The Loved Ones proving that horror is alive in well down under. This new generation of Aussie filmmakers is injecting a much-needed dose of creativity into modern horror, resulting in an emerging film industry that goes way beyond Mad Max (or even Thunderdome, for that matter). With this in mind, director Lachlan Huddy has produced a clever short film that aims to unite one of the oldest horror tropes, vampires, with one of the most recent storytelling techniques, the mockumentary.
Guy’s Trade stars Guy Williams as a vampire hunter in an alternate version of modern day Australia. Here, vampires have become an urban nuisance, and the government encourages citizens to take up arms agains the undead menace. When a documentary film crew is allowed to follow Guy around, they attempt to chronicle his hunts, motivation and views on the morality of hunting what used to be human beings.
Although it’s apparent from the beginning that this isn’t a special effects extravaganza with a huge budget, the faux-documentary aspect actually helps sell the dark world that Huddy has created, with an added layer of realism that helps to maintain the suspension of disbelief. However, the direction does make good use of the limited budget, blending practical and digital effects almost seamlessly, in a character-based experience. Williams is fantastic in his role, with a backstory that could easily be expanded in a possible feature film.
That being said, the vampires themselves aren’t all that frightening, with exaggerated make up that doesn’t quite sell their intended corpselike nature. The CGI used to transform them is also spotty at times, but Huddy’s decision to show only enough so that the viewer can understand what’s going on saves these scenes from mediocrity, keeping the film brief but intense. It’s easy to forgive technical flaws with this kind of budget, but hopefully, a future adaptation/expansion of this story will address these issues.
There’s a lot to love about Guy’s Trade, despite some minor technical gripes. The story is fortunately heavy on character and knows when not to focus on the action, instead of selling itself as a blockbuster trailer for a possible future movie. Lechlan Huddy’s vampire infested world does seem like a good place to start a larger franchise, but the short itself is worth a watch, regardless. If you’re a fan of vampires, mockumentaries or Australian horror in general, you’ll almost certainly enjoy this seven-minute thriller.
You can watch Guy’s Trade at the top of the article!
Judging from the unprecedented box office success of Kane Parsons’ Backrooms adaptation, you’ve likely already seen the liminal horror hit that managed to make audiences afraid of empty hallways and bad wallpaper. And now that so many of us have already entered the yellow labyrinth (some of us more than once), the time has come to discuss the spoiler-filled details that make the movie so fascinating in the first place.
And if there’s one element here that makes the Backrooms movie stand out from any previous lore/mythology, it has to be the genius addition of the Still Life entities. Warped recreations of real people that somehow wandered into the Complex, these misremembered creatures are responsible for some of the most disturbing imagery of 2026 – as well as laugh-out-loud memes created by one of the film’s very own concept artists.
However, true to Parsons’ word that the movie would rely heavily on practical effects, each of these distorted monsters was brought to life by real actors under heavy layers of makeup and prosthetics (with the occasional splash of CGI enhancements). While Anora and If I Had Legs I’d Kick You actress Ivy Wolk wasn’t among these performers, despite what Letterboxd might have you believe, the creature cast did benefit from veteran players with plenty of genre experience.
For starters, Alien: Romulus alumni Robert Bobroczkyi (who previously brought that film’s horrific Offspring to life during its most memorable sequence) plays the flick’s main antagonist, the Still Life version of Captain Clark. And though there was some obvious CGI involved in making the character’s peg-leg and nightmarish face more believable, Bobroczkyi’s monstrous performance and his natural 7’7″ frame helped to make that final chase sequence a clear highlight among this year’s genre offerings.
The film’s Texas-Chain-Saw-inspired “dinner” scene also features a freaky collection of less-aggressive Still Life creatures in the form of the Bearded Man, the Red-Headed Woman and, strangest of them all, the cheekily named “Archibald Leland Sutter Still Life” (who earned this title among fans and crewmembers as a reference to his apparent affinity for lamps).
While this was the first major horror outing for both Patrick Baynham (The Bearded Man) and Dana Mahmood (Archibald), Rhiannon Roberts has worked as a stunt performer in everything from Yellowjackets to HBO’s The Last of Us adaptation – which is probably why The Red-Headed Woman is the most active out of Clark’s impromptu “family.” That being said, the Archibald Leland Sutter Still Life is my personal favorite of the bunch simply because his anachronistic outfit suggests that the Backrooms phenomenon might be a lot older than the Async Foundation. I also love how hard he tries to be helpful with that little light of his!
That might be it for the Still Life entities, but I think horror fans will also be pleased to hear that the film’s Found Footage prologue stars none other than Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City star Avan Jogia as Naren Warne – and American Mary herself Katharine Isabelle also shows up in a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it cameo at Mary’s house party towards the middle of the story (though I have a feeling that she originally had a bigger part that was likely cut for time).
At the end of the day, Parsons’ Backrooms may have been an auteur-driven project motivated by the young director’s unique take on the classic creepypasta, but film has always been a collective artform, so it’s fun to see just how many talented performers it takes to bring this kind of supernatural nightmare to life in a way that connects with so many people.
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