Picture a small rural diner in the prairies. All the stereotypes are there – from the apple pie right down to the sassy servers. But the twist is that these two waitresses hold a secret so dark they can’t even stand in daylight. In other words, they’re vampires trying to lead normal lives.
Now stop thinking in stereotypes, because these vampires would rather not kill people. “The older vampire is trying to teach the younger one that actions have consequences,” explains director Galen Pendleton about Truckstop Bloodsuckers, a Web-series filmed at the Lunchbox Diner on the west end (a classic roadside eatery with the chef’s yelling “Order Up!” from the open kitchen). The series was filmed with an entirely local cast and crew, and a low budget.
Pendleton and co-writer Lindsey McNeill penned the script in2011 about the vampire waitresses battling it out against a group of drug dealers.
Initially, Mosaic Entertainment, producer of Caution: May Contain Nuts, liked the dark script but when Bite.ca picked up the series, they wanted more laughs. That’s when comedy writer Tony Binns came into funny it up.
“It was quite the arduouspro-cess,” says Binns, who emphasized humour in the dialogue to avoid any “slapstick wackiness.”
But even the dialogue had a budget. “There was going to be a scene where the younger vampire says ‘This is bad; this is KeanuReeves in Dracula bad,'” Binns says, laughing. The legal department didn’t think it was so funny, saying it couldn’t afford a potential lawsuit over a pop culture reference.
Truckstop Bloodsuckers will air on comedy website Bite.ca until it’s released as an feature-length film on Bite TV on Oct. 31
