Expected more

Awesome Movie

If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

Alex(Julian Sands), a vampire who often frequents a library, finds that a newly hired clerk, Anne(Suzanna Hamilton) resembles a long lost love, Virginia, sparking up a desire for relations with her. A mysterious intruder named Edgar(Kenneth Cranham)who persuasively ignites dinner conversations with Anne, attempts to warn her of Alex, because she indeed is attracted to him. There are unresolved deaths plaguing the London streets, and we watch as Alex pursues his victims, unable to halt the blood thirst his nature so requires.More of a doomed Gothic romance set in gloomy modern London where the fog still lives and breathes at night as Alex stalks the streets for his prey, and his feeding can be quite messy. I fell in love with how director Shimako Sato builds the mood of this tale, using blue, the way light is reflected and produced, rain, graffiti walls, the crumbling walls of Alex's dilapidated dwelling, & various other London locales which seem the perfect background of our vampire's existence and anguish. Sands, who facial features and hanging shoulders has him resembling a droopy lost puppy seeking refuge and a kind heart, I thought was perfect in the lead as Alex. I also liked how Sato often captures Sands, quietly emerging from a dark corner..while quite a sympathetic figure thanks in part to Sands work, he's also a brooding menace. I've always liked those vampire tales which display a lonely figure, melancholy, yearning for someone taken away, whose craving for human blood is so insatiable he's almost beast-like. I think that works well in this film..showing how Sato's camera seductively captures Sands', a handsome smallish man, whose not all that imposing, turn savage when it's time to feed, such as one scene where he throws a victim up against a wall, crushing his skull, lifting the poor soul above him with blood scattering throughout his face and lips. Another scene shows Alex caressing a wayward cat before sinking his teeth into it's furry neck. We even get a dream sequence where Alex is drinking the blood from Anne's cut finger, as he plunges on top of her, biting into her neck, drinking her blood. Cranham as Edgar is scholarly while quite imposing and straight-forward, often abrupt while also, at the same time, keeping secrets with a darkness behind his eyes. Even when Edgar informs Anne of who Alex really is, it seems like an agenda is always present as if this air of animosity drives/motivates him. Who Edgar really is heightens the despair and angst of Alex's loneliness. I felt Hamilton provides a moving performance as Anne(..and Virginia)using subtlety instead of melodramatics. Like Alex, Anne is a lonely-heart as well, having lost someone dear to her as well. The idea of having someone you love snatched away and the fear of dying, yet living all alone are themes I felt really make this film work well. Not critically acclaimed, I think it's one hell of a vampire film.

All mood, little substance seeps from this subdued, slowly paced melancholy modern-day vampire tale of sensual passion and obsessive love. Director / co-writer Shimako Sato does show promise with this Gothic low budget horror effort. This is on the technical side though, as the material is quite flawed and limited. Still there was a good (if unique) enough story within the framework wanting to emerge, and the ending throws up an unexpected chain of events. There's mystery, and it's driven by its characters and the tragic air is drilled in tight. But on the other hand the script is a little stuffy and empty, and there's a lack of thrills even though it does quench itself in some bloody, viscous scenes. It's quite messy on the blood drinking too. Even with these jolts, it focuses more on the moving story at hand. Some of the traditional vampire customs see little daylight too. The exemplary Julian Sands' beautifully placid, forlorn, heart-aching presence doesn't look out-of-place, and leading lady Suzanna Hamilton complements Sands with a edgy, but determined performance. However it's Kenneth Cranham's dark, enigmatic support turn that surprisingly engages. Sato purposely stages a bleak atmospheric stench with steady timing, and her articulate visual sense is dangerously succulent and enticingly poetic. It's ambitious, and haunting to watch. Elegantly masterful photography gives it a real personal guidance, brooding lighting shapes up nicely and the sweeping orchestral score is ineffectually jarring and emotionally layered.

I watch lots of scary movies (or at least they try to be) and this has to be the worst if not 2nd worst movie I have ever had to make myself try to sit through. I never knew the depths of Masacism until I rented this piece of moldy cheese covered in a used latex contraceptive. I am a fan of Julian Sans, but this is worse than I would hope for him.On the other hand the story was promising and I was intrigued...for the first minute and a half while the credits rolled and I had yet to see what pain looked like first hand. Perhaps there are some viewers out there that enjoyed this and can point me in the right direction, but then again I know of those viewers who understand if not commemorate me, especially when we had to turn the video off, and that simply is NOT done with our watching (we had to make one exception obviously). If it were up for a remake, I'd give it a chance so long as they had at most 1% of the original incorporated into it. That's all.

This is one of the most morbid and thoroughly depressing vampire stories I have ever seen...and yet, it also contains moments of dark beauty that nearly redeem it.Alex (Julian Sands) is a lonely, centuries old vampire wandering the streets of London. The only woman he ever loved was lost to him centuries ago...but there's a new woman in his life, a woman named Ann who bears an extraordinary resemblance to Virginia, the young girl Alex once loved. Ann has recently lost a love of her own to a fiery car crash, and lives deep in her own gray depression. After an anonymous letter leads her to a new job in an occult library, Ann begins a slow, hesitant courtship with Alex, whom she finds both attractive and a little spooky. Alex, confused and jaded (and also unable to refrain from imagining himself feeding on Ann) holds her at arms length. But the fears and emotions of Alex and Ann are not the only complications in their relationship. There's another man stalking them both...a man named Edgar, who was once married to Virginia and has been looking for Alex for a very long time.This movie is, quite obviously, an homage to the poetry of Edgar Allan Poe, most of which dealt with the sad, early deaths of beautiful young women, one of which was Poe's own wife and cousin, Virginia. It is a slow, dark, oppressively bleak tale, filled with blood and despair. It is an all-too mortal tale of loves lost and people scarred by the cruelties of life, be it mortal or immortal. This sad tale of pain has no happy ending and reinforces the depressing ideal that what we love most will be taken from us forever, before the love can ever be admitted, known, expressed and shared. This film is beautifully shot and has great performances. The story is nothing new, but its strange little twists almost make up for that fact. By all means, see it at least once, especially if you're a fan of vampire cinema...just don't watch it when you're already depressed, because it won't do a thing to snap you out of it.