BYZANTIUM (2012)

[indianasmith]

This is an interesting and cerebral vampire film, somewhat of a feminist version of INTERVIEW WITH THE VAMPIRE.
Two beautiful women, Elanor and her mother Clara, have traveled together for two centuries, moving from town to town and preying upon people to feed their appetite for blood.  Clara is a prostitute, who works as an exotic dancer and preys upon the men who pay for her services; Elanor is a wistful, sad immortal, trapped at age 16 forever, who preys upon the elderly and the dying, waiting until they concede their readiness to die.  Both women are pursued wherever they go by a mysterious vampire order that seeks to exterminate them; their backstory is told in the form of an essay that Clara writes for a college class in their new abode.

  Beautifully filmed and slow-paced but never boring, this is the best vampire movie since LET THE RIGHT ONE IN.  It offers several new twists on the vampire mythos (the women draw the blood from their victims not with fangs but their long, sharp thumbnails) and features some very well-developed characters.  All in all, I really enjoyed this one.

[Archivist]

Thanks, Indy.  I saw the trailer some months ago, but dismissed as 'yet another vampire movie'.  And being a fan of vampire movies, that is saying something.  The trailer makes it seem like it is very well shot.  I'll give this a go.

[claws]

This one's been getting the internet buzz lately. It's on my to-view list.

[Neville]

I wasn't expecting much from this one, but it must be the best vampire film I've seen since "Let Me In". Looks like Neil Jordan took another look at the main ingredients from "Interview with a Vampire" and re-arranged them in a better way, although with a much lower budget. I could have done without the messed up structure, though.