Rick’s Flicks Picks » This Weekend’s Film Festival Celebrates Young Vampires

This Weekend’s Film Festival Celebrates Young Vampires

18 03 2009

With the TWILIGHT about to descend on DVD, This Weekend’s Film Festival looks at good young vampire films. I guess young vampire is an oxymoron though. Young-looking vampires would be a more accurate statement. The opening film made my best films of 2008 list. There’s also a tightly written anime tale. A twist on the vampire genre from horror master George A. Romero. The quintessential ’80s young vamp film, which originated the term “vamp out.” And we close with one of the best child vampires in movie history. So put your feet up and pour yourself a glass of red wine, but if you don’t drink wine then you might be too young or just right for this week’s lineup.

The horror film, LET THE RIGHT ONE IN, was one the premiere films of last year. As I said in my original review, “This Swedish gem becomes one of the best vampire movies ever made because it deals with all the standards of vampirism in a surprisingly sweet coming of age story.” Oskar is a young boy who fantasizes about stabbing the bullies at school. The lonely boy tries to make friends with the new girl at his apartment complex, but Eli seems a bit odd, making Oskar even more attracted to her. And the stranger she gets the more repulsed and attracted he becomes. Despite looking like a preteen, Eli has the maturity of a girl who has lived for decades. So why would she befriend Oskar? By the end of the story, the title becomes more of a question than a statement. Tomas Alfredson’s haunting film presents a dark young love story mixed with a subtle twist on the vampire myth. Like INTERVIEW WITH A VAMPIRE, this thoughtful film contemplates the pain and loneliness of being an immortal creature who must feed on the blood of humans to survive. Written by John Ajvide Lindqvist, the story sees the depths of its characters and uses the conventions to the vampire genre as a metaphor for dark places in the human psyche.

As I said of BLOOD: THE LAST VAMPIRE in my original review, “Clocking in at under an hour, this anime feature is a perfect example of how a simple story is elevated to something more with perfect direction.” Hiroyuki Kitakubo’s anime vampire tale is set in 1966 Japan where Saya, the last of the original vampires, hunts down mutated bat-like bloodsuckers for a mysterious U.S. government agency called Red Shield. When gruesome deaths occur near a U.S. military base, Saya is called in to investigate. The film establishes its characters quickly and leaves details open developing a mystery to the story. Saya is cold and calculated, so we wonder what her agenda is. In the battle with the monstrous vampires, she is stuck with the fearful nurse Caroline, making a perfect odd couple pair to be trapped with murderous creatures in a locked airplane hangar. Though Saya is centuries old, she looks like a teen, making her perfect to dress in a schoolgirl’s uniform and pose as a student. But while she might look young, she doesn’t act it, and this piques the suspicion of fellow student Sharon. Kitakubo sets a wonderful ominous tone through dark production design, patient pacing and bursts of action. Saya’s innocent look is a perfect counter to her brutal skills with a sword. She is one iconically cool vampire hunter.

George A. Romero is best known for his take on zombies, but in MARTIN, he provides a unique look at vampires. Martin, played with creepy shyness by John Amplas, is a teen who murders woman and drinks their blood. He claims to be 84 years old and that the sun hurts his eyes. His parents send him off to live with his older cousin Tada (Lincoln Maazel), an overly religious man who is convinced Martin is a vampire. Tada’s granddaughter Christina (Christine Forrest) does believe the superstitions and thinks Martin needs psychiatric help more than an exorcism. Martin is like many confused teens; he unable to understand the changes he is experiencing and lashing out at the world that cannot relate. Romero paces the film like a Hitchcockian thriller, similar to the early work of Italian horror maestro Dario Argento, while never missing an opportunity to take humorous pokes at religious zealotry. When Martin strikes up a relationship with a lonely married woman, we don’t know whom we should worry more about. As I said in my original review, “The sad tale of alienation and neglect is captivating in how it takes the conventions of the vampire genre, throws them out and presents a “vampire” tale in a new, more real world fashion.”

THE LOST BOYS is the quintessential ’80s vampire flick. As I said in my original review, “Many films try to float outside of their time for good reason, because they want to avoid becoming dated. But some films embrace their times and come to represent those times even if they aren’t trying to. LOST BOYS does that.” From its hairstyles, costumes and the presence of the Coreys, Joel Schumacher’s vampire tale is a time capsule of 1987. However, in mixing vampires with Peter Pan’s lost boys and the gang culture, the film provides a lasting twist on the genre. For rebellious teens becoming a vampire seems fun. You sleep all day, party all night, never grow old, and never die. And you get to be badass and kill people too. Michael (Jason Patric) moves to the town of Santa Clara where David (Kiefer Sutherland) tricks him into drinking vampire blood as a test. Michael will either join them or die. Now Michael, with the help of his little brother Sam (Corey Haim) and the Frog Brothers Edgar (Corey Feldman) and Alan (Jamison Newlander), must kill the head vampire to free Michael from the curse. Like many modern takes on the vampire, LOST BOYS isn’t scary in the classic sense, leaning more toward action and comedy than scares. But with its teenage gang of vampires, LOST BOYS touches on elements of the vampire myth that have always intrigued us — if we wanted to live forever and stay young, what would we be willing to do to gain it?

INTERVIEW WITH A VAMPIRE closes This Weekend’s Film Festival with the most popular child vampire in cinema history — Claudia, played in a career best performance by the young Kirsten Dunst. While she’s the youngest vampire in the story, the lead character Louis, played by Brad Pitt, is in his early 20s when the manipulative vampire Lestat, played deviously by Tom Cruise, turns him. Based on Anne Rice’s bestselling novel, this romanticized take on the vampire myth casts the creatures of the night as tragic anti-heroes. Louis and Claudia, like Eli in LET THE RIGHT ONE IN, are plagued with the existential dread associated with being immortal and ageless. Louis struggles with a changing world where he never changes, but this same problem is more acute to Claudia, who is damned to look like a little doll for eternity. Unlike Eli who displays wisdom, Claudia is like a perpetual spoiled brat for centuries. While her thirst for human blood is limitless, she is far more dangerous to her own kind, especially her maker Lestat. Through the story of the somber Louis and tragic Claudia, we witness the loneliness of being a vampire. As I said in my original review, “INTERVIEW embraces our fascination with the vampire and plays on our curiosity.” When the reporter wants to become a vampire at the end, Louis is enraged. Human’s lust for power seems to cloud our vision, and it takes a vampire to remind us of how lucky life is.

To sink your teeth into this week’s films simply head to the video store, update the Netflix queue, check out Zap2It.com for TV listings, or help support the site and buy the films on DVD at the links below.