An inhuman appetite
We peel back the skin and sink our teeth into the gorgeous gothic fantasy short, Vorace.
by Toussaint Egan
If there's one thing I enjoy, it's gothic, flamboyant animation that rides the knife's edge between being titillating and terrifying. That's exactly what I got when I stumbled across a new, original animated short helmed by two artist-animators whose previous credits include Scavengers Reign and season two of Arcane.
Released on Halloween, Vorace is a minute-and-a-half short about three characters set in a macabre fantasy world rife with death, decadence, and deception. Told entirely without words, the film follows Laurence, a young man who bears striking resemblance to Vampire Hunter D, who journeys to the far corners of a blighted kingdom to rescue a young woman, Ophélie, from the clutches of a seductive vampire who intends to sire her. Venturing into the bowels of the vampire's palatial fortress, draped in sickly organic masses festering like a cancer, Laurence soon stumbles upon a scene unlike anything he could have imagined.
Co-directed by Pauline Mauvière and Charles Ouvrard, every frame of Vorace is worthy of being framed. I've pored over the short what feels like a dozen times now, screenshotting and scrutinizing the details of every scene and location. Rotting bouquets of pomegranates and tentacles, anthropomorphic oysters, and still-beating hearts gilded with ornamental protrusions; the film is rife with small, deliberate creative choices that belie a wealth of meaning perched on the cusp of the film's periphery.
I knew I had to reach out to Mauvière and Ouvrard to talk about their work on Vorace, and I'm glad I did, as the two were more than gracious enough to entertain and answer my enthusiastic questions over email. Without further adieu, let's peel back the skin and sink our teeth into Vorace.
Tell me a bit about yourselves. How long have you worked as animators, what have you worked on in the past, and what are some of your biggest inspirations as artists?
Pauline Mauvière: I've worked in the animation industry as a background artist/concept artist since 2021. I've also worked a bit as an illustrator for board games. I've worked on shows such as Scavengers Reign or Arcane. I also co-directed the movie Louise during my school years. As for inspirations it's really a wide question, there are so many artists I love! I tend to think about inspirations more as related to a project, [so] we will talk about our inspirations for Vorace later!
Charles Ouvrard: I've worked in animation since 2017 and started off as an intern on Lorenzo Mattoti's The Bear's Famous Invasion of Sicily. I went on several projects, with the biggest one being Arcane, in 2021. As for inspirations, there are a lot of them, but my biggest inspirations are '90s anime like Ghost in the Shell, Vampire Hunter D, Akira, etc. As a background painter, I gravitate a lot towards the painting styles of Piotr Jabłoński, Tatyana Kupriyanova, and Mark Boedges. Also, of course Arcane's style will always be a big influence as I learned a ton from it.
How did you two meet and first begin collaborating with one another? What inspired you to work together on Vorace?
PM: We met on the production of Arcane season 2. We immediately got along and shared similar interests. I knew Charles's art before I even met him in-person and really admired it. I was really excited when he offered to do something together, even if I was a bit scared!
CO: I was really impressed by her level [of skill] and art. She has a way to create concepts and ideas from several references with a thoughtful approach to storytelling and picture-making that really resonated with me. She keeps the bigger project in mind, has a clear vision for it and has "the eye" to see what works or doesn't in a frame. All of that impressed me and I knew I wanted to create something like Vorace with her.
From initial idea to the final cut, how long did it take you to produce Vorace?
PM: We started talking about it in November 2024, so it took about a year to make it. A lot of it was done alongside our regular jobs, with breaks when we didn't have the time or energy to do everything. Also, we couldn't have made it without the help of our amazing friends Constance Bertoux, Camille Bozec, Francisco M. Magalhaes, and Romain Mazevet!
CO: About a year on and off, I had a slow start on it because I felt sometimes blocked by the pressure of not feeling good enough to make something like that. And some other times we had to work to fill the bank a bit, but towards the end we took time off to fully focus on it! And like Pauline said, it would not have been possible without the help of our friends!
The characters, backgrounds, and layouts in Vorace reminded me heavily of Yuji Ikehata's background art and Yutaka Minowa's character designs for Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust, as well as Evyind Earle's work on Sleeping Beauty. What would you say were the chief inspirations behind Vorace's aesthetic?
PM and CO: The designs for Vampire Hunter D were certainly a huge inspiration! The work of Evyind Earle wasn't such an obvious reference for us while working on Vorace, but I really love it so it's absolutely possible that it inspired us at one point or another. Other big influences were the gothic aesthetic in general, the video game Bloodborne, the concept artist Piotr Jabłoński (especially his work for Dishonored 2), H.R. Giger, and the Gobelins graduation movie Vulvine reine d'extase. We made Vorace to be able to paint and draw everything we couldn't in professional work.
Would you be willing to share what the recurring appearance of oysters are intended to symbolize in Vorace? We see them at least three times: the vampire licking one shaped like a woman, a pair of dogs barking at an oyster-shaped ornament with a face inside, and the vampire pouring an oyster into the mouth of Ophélie.
PM: Beside the sexual symbolism that oysters carry, I prefer to let people interpret it like they want to!
CO: I don't want to reveal too much either, but it's all about the juxtapositions it has: It's a hard rough sharp shell with a beautiful pearly coating inside, surrounded by interesting patterns on the fringe and a viscous ugly snotty flesh. I love all of it, and in itself says a lot I think.
What kind of story did you want to convey through Vorace? The film ends on a cliffhanger, one that never fully reveals Laurence's reaction to the macabre scene he's stumbled upon.
PM: Vorace is more like a premise of a story than a fully fledged one, but I think we wanted to have a little twist where Ophélie might not be as helpless as heroines in fairytales usually are.
CO: Indeed, it's also mostly a "dog eat dog world" story, calling back to its name. I love the kind of stories where the focus is on imperfect characters made flawed by a very hostile environment, that are driven to rise above others but along the way their point of view expands and new answers come to light. In my mind, the scene where Ophelie drinks the oyster is akin to taking the pill in The Matrix, and from then on seeing the world with a transcendent vision, she has to decide how to live in it.
How did you settle on the word "Vorace" as the title of the short? In the film, we see the vampire presumably grooming Ophélie to be ravished, only to be devoured himself.
PM: You answered the question pretty well! Charles first came up with the idea of "Ravenous," and I really liked the sound of it, but offered to translate it into French, as we are French after all. And I really like the sound of Vorace too.
CO: Yeah, like Pauline said! But to add to the origin of the film as a whole, it came at first from my love for the vampire video game V Rising: I wanted to do a five-shot fan art animation for it, then I asked Pauline if she wished to help me with it before it became what it is today.
So Ravenous, or Vorace, were good titles for a Vampire story.
What sort of feeling or impression did you want audiences to take away from Vorace?
PM: Probably a mix of grossed out and beguiled.
CO: I would feel like we accomplished our goal if someone saw the movie and then were inspired to go do their own. I have always been pushed forward thanks to people who did their art or projects and made you feel like you didn't need the best talent or the most money to create something. I want people to see Vorace with its best qualities and worst flaws and feel like "Yeah, I can do that."
Now that you've completed Vorace, what are you looking forward to working on next? Do you have any desire to revisit the world of Vorace at some point in the future?
PM: It's possible that we might revisit this universe in the future, but we don't have any plans right now.
CO: I wouldn't mind revisiting it! I don't think I will do a project that big for some time, but doing individual shots/animated illustrations that use some of the same visual language that could be in the same world is definitely something I want to do!
Where can people find more of your work? Do you have portfolio pages or preferred social media accounts?
PM: For now, I post on my Instagram account (@paumauve), but I'm thinking of having another platform where I could share images in better resolution, probably on ArtStation. I also have a youtube channel where you can find Vorace and very soon some behind the scenes!
CO: I too mainly post on my instagram (@charlesouvrard). Also, you should give a follow to the wonderful people who helped us create Vorace: Romain Mazevet, Constance Bertoux, Camille Bozec, and Francisco M. Magalhaes!