See Jaime Snyder’s 12 Minute Cat/Girl Horror Film "Violent Florence"

Jaime Snyder is the guy behind Violent Florence—a somewhat ambiguous, pink-hued horror film that will make you question your pet relations. In the lead up to Melbourne International Film Festival we talked to Jaime about his twelve minute flick and what we were in store for.

VICE: So the trailer is pretty fucked up. Can you tell me a bit about what happens in the film?
Jaime Snyder: We’re playing our cards pretty close to our chests but basically Violent Florence is a short horror film. It starts out with our protagonist rescuing a cat and then develops a much darker and intense storyline that just kind of blows up. It’s my second major short film. My last one was an adaptation of a children’s picture book.

Was that a horror too?
No, it was an endearing Australian picture book called There’s a Hippopotamus on Our Roof Eating Cake. So it was this super nice short film and now I’ve made the complete opposite.

What led from you making children's adaptations to horror?
I think I just wanted to make a short film about a deranged female character who’s a protagonist. I don’t think you see that many female protagonists who are really despicable and it was something I really wanted to explore. It’s difficult to know what to say without giving too much away.

Did you use a real cat in the filming?
Yeah, we had this great cat called Spidey. We couldn’t afford a film cat—he was a friend of a friend’s—but he was very well behaved. There was also puppetry and a bit of CGI involved as well. There’s actually been word of him turning up to the screening in a tuxedo on a little leash, but we’re not sure if it’s going to happen or not.

In most horrors the build up is pretty crucial, how did you work around this in such a short piece?
There are only a few really cliché horror moments in the film and when you’re watching it with an audience you can always tell that they’re responding to it; that they know what kind of moment they’re in. It almost makes the audience feel safe because they think they know what kind of film it is, and then you can turn it on its head again. I like toying with things like that.

Where is it showing?
It’s screening this Friday at 9pm at Hoyts Melbourne Central as part of the WTF shorts package at MIFF. Basically it’s part of the program of really deranged and twisted short films.

Are you a cat or dog person?
I love cats, I’m a cat person but I think dogs bring out the best in me.

See Violent Florence at MIFF on Friday August 8.