I love an adventurous short film, and Mantis Club from writer/director Yalian Li is definitely that.
Imagine this. What if you lived in a world where love and sex were, quite literally, deadly for men? Because in Mantis Club, any sexual encounter with a woman could end in potential tragedy. In this world, 85% of women devour their sexual partners.
Meet Zack (Nicholas Petroccione), a 17-year-old, doe-eyed virgin in search of love. He wants to meet an older woman from the internet, willing to risk it all for a chance at intimacy. But therapist Moe (Reginald James) and his cadre of “Bachelors Anonymous” step in to stop him. They’ve sworn off women and taken vows of celibacy in an effort to stop the violence they enact.
But Zack is determined to believe he’s found a true connection, a rare woman who doesn’t eat men. He refuses to cancel the date, meeting Alex (Nicole Starrett). Is she a predator? Will Zack escape alive?
Viewers will likely recognize a lot of the verbiage here, as the film skewers life in a patriarchal society and the heteronormative interactions that have become all too common in straight relationships. Flipped on their head, of course.
“She’s only looking for some fresh meat.”
“What if she’s one of the good ones?”
“Just a kiss.”
Short films and social commentary are a risky crossover, because you’ve got so little time to tackle what are often massive, nuanced topics. But the darkly comedic approach of Mantis Club allows characters to be a bit more on-the-nose. The short never preaches. No one ever condescends. The well-rounded characters get us invested in the story just as much as the thematic undertones.
Li’s short is her 2022 graduate thesis, and with this quality of work coming so early in her career, I’m excited to see what’s next. I could very easily see her making the next Fresh or X.
Being a woman is already a nightmare, so to see the experience satirized via horror dulls the pain just a little.
Find more on Mantis Club on the film’s Instagram.
