Taylor's wife, Anna, has just filed for divorce. The couple is in that break-up phase that's completely raw. Anger and spite dwell. Some of Anna's things still need to be picked up. Closure hasn't come yet. Taylor has been left alone in their shared house as they begin negotiating their divorce. He isn't exactly keeping up with the things that normally fall under Anna's care: the dishes, the laundry, the electric bill, and general tidiness fall to the wayside. A once stylishly decorated apartment is buried underneath sloppy disregard. But he isn't concerned about any of that...not yet, anyway.
Taylor isn't an abuser, and he isn't a fundamentally terrible guy, but he is a product of a heteronormative environment. He's emotionally stunted, emasculated by his failed marriage, and ultimately unwilling to accept his role in the fallout. One of the greatest misconceptions about character is that we must define who is "good" and who is "bad" with minimal and forgivable nuance, but Taylor is like many others. He's both at once. And he just won't get out of his own damn way.
Taylor is played by Caleb Fietsam
As Taylor struggles to confront his feelings and shortcomings, his environment becomes a blueprint for his psyche. Cold darkness is broken only by small sources of warm light via candles and battery-powered lanterns--small moments of introspection ultimately defeated by crushing swaths of blues and blacks.
Vermin was written and directed by Kristen Semedo. Kristen holds a Bachelor of Arts in Film and Media Studies from Arizona State University. She is a screenwriter, director, and editor for the NoSleep Podcast and a former Local 44 property master residing in Los Angeles. Her short screenplay, Deadlock, was recently named an official Filmquest '24 Top 10 Short Screenplay Finalist.
Her love of horror is the cornerstone of her filmography. Since childhood, Kristen has been emphatic about the entire genre, from haunted houses to high-brow arthouse films. Her writing most often centralizes themes of gender, despair, rage, and family. By filtering fear through such lenses, Kristen can write stories that move beyond the usual tropes of trauma and grief and speak more to nuance. Horror for the sake of itself is rather unfulfilling, and her personal brand of fear contains both requisite dread and social/personal commentary.
She's also known for her Property Master work on Destroy All Neighbors (Directed by Josh Forbes and starring Alex Winter & Jonah Ray Rodriguez,) Scott Derrickson’s segment on V/H/S/85, and Aporia (Directed by Jared Moshe.)