Drama Queen

Drama Queen, starring Catarina Carvalho and David E. Texieria, is a dark dive into a love that goes awry right from the start. Told like a fairy tale, we are introduced to a young woman who straight away falls in love with a man. However, her feelings for this man isn’t reciprocated. So she bakes him a pie, in which she adds a love potion. But the love potion doesn’t work. Sadly, it turns out this man is gay.

For the rest of this film, the woman is seen getting ready and talking to her cat. She is relating her tale to her kitten. Then, to the audience’s shock, we see her love interest, and blood is pouring from his wound. It looks like this woman had used a hammer to hurt him. When he tries to escape, she strikes him repeatedly with the hammer, determined to finish the job. She sits his corpse down at the dinner table for some “revenge pie,” and the film ends there.

The shots in this short were very vivid and clear. The cinematographer obviously is very talented. Close-up shots of the actors’ faces as well as the objects around the house give this film an intimate and personal feel, while shots of the bloody hammer and the blood pouring from Texieria’s character’s wounds give the scene an especially violent and gory vibe. However, there was a shot where it looked like there was some overexposure to sunlight, and it was slightly darker when Carvalho’s character catches Texieria’s character trying to escape. Editing this out might make this pivotal scene flow better.

Perfect for the spooky season, this tale of love and revenge only begins to touch the surface of what could be a more involved horror-related drama. For instance, for the majority of Act III: Once Upon a Dream, Carvalho’s character is seen laughing manically and dancing around the apartment to eerily show how crazy she is. That’s basically all she does. A lot more could be explored here, like maybe a flashback to how the protagonist and her love interest meet. A deeper dive into the past could tie into the present and make the film feel overall more dynamic.

However, the film ends shortly after that. Which was a bit of a letdown. I felt the ending could be fleshed out more to make the Oscar Wilde quote in the beginning (“I hate people who are serious about meals. It is so shallow of them”) come full circle. Yet there are so many loose ends. And since this is a fairy tale, where’s the happy ending? Even a dark happy ending would look good here.

Carvalho does a good job of portraying an unhinged character. Her memorably performance adds a touch of comedic flair and charm to a character, who doesn’t have a lot going for her. But Carvalho’s depiction feels spot-on. However, Texieria’s character functions more like a corpse, until he tries to get away. There’s not much to say about his performance, although by the end of the film, we’re led to believe Carvalho’s character, “the Drama Queen” wasn’t the hero of the story.

Toward the credits, the real tell is when Director David E. Texieria is cited as “the Real Queen.” It explains a lot and seems to be a fun add-on.

Despite its failings, Drama Queen definitely packs in the drama. From beginning to end, the histrionics are on high. If that’s something you can’t live without, then Drama Queen is for you.