This short shows at Time to Murder and Create block October 5th, 2025, at 2:00 PM Founders MCC Church 4607 Prospect Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90027 For tickets: HQSFF
By Valerie Milano
Hollywood, CA (The Hollywood Times) 9/16/25 – Among the most striking shorts at this year’s Hollywood Queer Film Festival is The Fangs I’m After, an animated lesbian romance from filmmaker and animator Rebecca Chivers. Bold, intimate, and visually inventive, the film reimagines the eternal dance between predator and prey as something more tender, complicated, and deeply queer.
Chivers, who both directed and led the animation, developed the project as her senior capstone at Chapman University. But what began as a student assignment quickly grew into a full-scale passion project. “While I had to complete it for graduation, I also knew this was my one chance to make the queer vampire story I wanted to see,” Chivers told me during our recent Hollywood Times Zoom interview. “In the industry, it can be really hard to get these stories told. Characters get cut. Representation gets pushed aside. But here, I had control, so I knew it had to be a queer story, and it had to be a vampire story.”
The film’s origins are just as colorful as its final aesthetic. Chivers revealed that the idea struck while listening to Lady Gaga’s “Americano.” The result was a “fantasy western flair” layered onto characters she’d been sketching and carrying with her for years. “I’ve always loved vampires,” she shared with a grin, adding that blending queer romance, western grit, and animated stylization felt natural to her as an artist.
Her influences range from the quirky intimacy of Crazy Ex-Girlfriend to the dynamic character acting of DreamWorks’ The Bad Guys, and the unapologetically queer storytelling of Netflix’s She-Ra. The result is a film that feels both fresh and familiar, built from fragments of pop culture yet uniquely personal.
Chivers’ journey to completing The Fangs I’m After was not without sacrifices. “There were so many late nights in the animation lab,” she recalled. “Sometimes I’d be there until 3 or 4 a.m., knowing I had a 10 a.m. class I probably wouldn’t make.” That grind, however, proved formative. Instead of chasing perfection, she learned to embrace “good enough” and trust her instincts as both director and animator.
The process also gave her insight into leadership and collaboration. On pitch day, she had to recruit volunteers to help bring her vision to life, no small task for a student film that, as she put it, had few clear comparisons in mainstream media. “There just isn’t a lot out there like this,” Chivers said. “That made it both challenging and exciting.”
Since its completion, The Fangs I’m After has begun its festival run, landing in multiple events including a horror festival in Chicago. “I wasn’t even sure it would qualify as horror,” Chivers laughed, “but vampires open those doors.” The Halloween-adjacent timing only sweetened its momentum.
Looking ahead, Chivers hopes to continue working in queer animation, citing series like The Owl House as inspirations. “I don’t have to be a director,” she noted. “I love being part of a team, bringing someone else’s characters to life, and fighting for representation wherever I can.”
Visually distinct and emotionally resonant, The Fangs I’m After exemplifies what happens when queer stories are given the space and resources to thrive. Chivers’ playful design touches, like her protagonist’s ever-present single tooth, a character quirk she hadn’t even consciously planned, showcase her instinctive artistry.
As media partners of the Hollywood Queer Film Festival, The Hollywood Times is proud to spotlight Chivers’ work. Her film stands as both a charming lesbian romance and a bold statement of creative ownership: queer stories deserve to be told, not trimmed away.
For updates, follow the film on Instagram at @fangs.im.after_film and explore Rebecca’s portfolio at rebeccachivers.weebly.com. After its festival run, the short will be released on YouTube for broader audiences.
The Fangs I’m After proves that sometimes the sharpest bite comes not from horror, but from love, resilience, and the courage to tell your story.
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