Bloody Bites: The Blue Diamond

Cult leaders make terrible parents, because they think everybody is one of their “children.” Allison could tell you that about her late mom, but she doesn’t have to, because all the cult members keep telling her how Jacqueline Diamond was like a mother to them. As far as she is concerned, they can have her—but maybe they want Allison too in Sam Fox’s 16-minoute short film The Blue Diamond, which premieres this Friday on Screambox’s short film showcase Bloody Bites.

Allison long resented her narcistic mother for abandoning her to found her skiing-themed EST-esque self-help cult. She probably assumes her ragingly inappropriate eulogy would be the last way she could get back at Mother Diamond. It is a doozy. Yet, members of Blue Diamond seem completely tone deaf with respect to her flippant contempt for her mom and the cult.

Obviously, The Blue Diamond takes a horror turn, given its debut on a genre streamer, but the best reason to watch is Desiree Staples’ epic middle-finger-waving meltdown as Allison. Watching her react to cultists’ weirdness is quite a show. In fact, she manages to do the hard-to-imagine: outshining horror’s grand dame, Barbara Crampton, who appears as Diamond in pre-recorded video messages.

Much of Fox’s art, set, and graphic design work looks cheesy, but intentionally so, in a nostalgically retro kind of way. Regardless, the razor-sharp dialogue, written by Staples and Fox, is what really stands out. Yet, it also perfectly expresses what makes cults so horrifying. Enthusiastically recommended for horror fans looking for a good laugh without leaving the genre, The Blue Diamond releases tomorrow (6/5) on Screambox’s Bloody Bites and on VOD.