Blood: The Last Vampire (2009)
The vampire of old has certainly been given a makeover of late, with coffin-dwelling, garlic and crucifix-fearing beasties giving way to pretty-boys (Twilight), SFX zombies (I Am Legend (2007)), or punching bags for homicidal beauties in sexy gear (Underworld). Blood: The Last Vampire (2009) is unfortunately an irritating, largely pointless addition to the last category.
This live-action version of what originally began life as a 50-minute Japanese animated feature (which in turn spawned numerous comic-book sequels) was originally intended to be under the helmsmanship of Ronny Yu (The 51st State (2001)), but it eventually went to French commercials and music videos director Chris Nahon (Kiss of the Dragon (2001)), with Chris Chow (Huo Yuan Jia (2006)) providing the script.
South Korean actress Jeon Ji-hyun plays Saya, a sword-wielding demon-slayer in 1970s Japan who is eternally 16 and, surprise surprise, perpetually clad in school uniform. Hmmm. Her half-vampire DNA gives her the speed and strength necessary to terminate her monstrous brethren on behalf of the Council, a secret society dedicated to protecting humanity from the threat of extinction at the hands of boss demon Onigen (played by Koyuki, who was Tom Cruise’s love interest in The Last Samurai (2003)).
It’s unconvincing, poorly dubbed, and even the fight sequences seem tacked on. Dull, dull, dull. A sequel looks possible – there’s a scary thought.
91 mins.
Låt den rätte komma in (Let The Right One In) (2008)
‘Will you be my girlfriend?’
‘Oskar, I’m not a girl.’
On the other hand, Tomas Alfredson’s Let The Right One In (2008) (which lifted the Golden Raven at this year’s Brussels International Festival of Fantastic Film) is perhaps the finest film ever made about the undead.
The last really scary vamp flick was David Slade’s excellent 30 Days of Night (2007). But, whereas that was based on the high-concept, comic-book notion of an Alaskan town that’s plunged into darkness for 30 days every year, and is therefore the ideal ‘holiday’ destination for feral, flight-of-foot bloodsuckers, Alfredson’s film (scripted by John Ajvide Lindqvist from his own novel), as with all the very best horror, is set entirely in the world of the prosaic.
Specifically, small-town Sweden – the Stockholm suburb of Blackeberg, in 1982, where we find Oskar (Kåre Hedebrant), a bright, sensitive but overlooked and bullied boy, whose teenage friendship with his beautiful but peculiar 12-year-old next-door neighbour Eli (Lina Leandersson) dovetails into love. Trouble is, we know that something is very wrong with Eli – as Oskar is set to discover. There’s no explaining it, it is what it is – Eli is a creature of the night, who needs blood to live.
And it is this matter-of-fact approach that truly sets the film apart from its kin. With the possible exception of George A. Romero’s
Martin (1978), vampire mythos doesn’t tend to go into details about how difficult it would actually be to keep up a facade of normality while being forced to drink from the living – when we first join Eli (truly, a superb, heartrending performance from Leandersson that combines pathos, even innocence with shocking savagery), she is being cared for by an older, unsavory middle-age man named Håkan (Per Ragnar). He’s not her father – her familiar, maybe?
Whatever the case, he takes care of her blood supply, killing people at random and draining their life essence. But his capture and suicide results in Eli having to fend for herself, as, all the while, she grows closer to Oskar. And, when you’re being badly bullied, it really helps to have a friend who’s a vampire…
Alfredson’s film can of course be properly described as horror but, what makes it an absolute marvel is the fact that, for the first time, the two long-recounted aspects of vampirism (the tragedy and terror) are seamlessly blended, while the traditional vampire mythos is both respected and subverted. We never know whether a crucifix will be effective; Eli, who is unable to come out in daylight, must also be invited into a home (hence the film’s title) or else, as we discover in one truly shocking sequence. And, as is demonstrated in an awe-inspiring coup de cinema, she is clearly a supernatural being, able to scale a multi-storey hospital in seconds.
And the tender love story at the narrative’s core, a precise observation of teenage amour that’s complicated by factors beyond belief, is what will also make this a film for the ages.
Scary, sad, breathtaking.
PS. This news just in – there’s going to be a US remake. Just don’t, capisce?
Released across Europe from 15 July. 115 mins. In Swedish.
James Drew
'Expatica's weekly cinema-review section is brought to you in collaboration with Picturenose.com'
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Expatica 2009
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Vampires – they keep coming back, don’t they? Picturenose’s James Drew offers his thoughts on two new nosferatu nightmares.
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