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Set
in the winding streets and dark alleyways of riverside London,
the story centers on Ruby and Vincent. Ruby works as a lap dancer
whose "pimp" is intent on promoting her as a call girl.
Vincent was bitten by a femme fatale In a dark alleyway, and after
weeks of battling with his condition, he has finally give in to
his addiction: blood. Vincent had become a vampire!
Vincent
and Ruby meet through happenstance in a London café and
fall in love during one special night. Vincent tries to feed on
Ruby to satisfy his addiction which goes against his heart. Ruby
escapes, but has now been 'turned' and has also become a vampire.
Because of Ruby's dark past, she has always been a fighter. Her
father was a heroin addict who killed himself in the next room
when she was a little girl. After she has turned into a vampire,
she keeps getting creepy flashbacks about him. Unsure of what
is happening to her, she returns to Vincent who in now remorseful
and convinces her to stay and hopefully work things out. Together
hey try to go 'cold turkey' on their blood addiction. Ruby's previous
'owners' want their star girl back and Matt, a man from her recent
past, seeks her out.
Made for under $100,000, the production value is exceptionally
good. Since the movie was low budget, you might expect typical
low budget acting, but surprisingly the actors did a really good
job. I especially liked Giles Alderson as Vincent. Lawrence Pearce
also found some beautiful women to play the strippers. They are
some of the hottest women I've seen in a vampire flick, and yes,
there's plenty of nudity. This movie has an addicting sexiness
that grabs you from the start. In fact, this movie has a sexiness
that most vampire movies forget to include.
The
dialogue is very Tarantino-esque and his influence is obvious
as well. Not that this is a bad thing, some of the dialogue is
fantastic and this movie offers some decent quotables. We also
get some really great scenes, for instance, after Ruby turns,
she is involved in a dominatrix fantasy with a John. He's bound,
naked and bending over. She then grabs a strap-on dildo and is
about to apply it when she faints from the changes that she's
going through.
This
movie seems very misogynistic at times. There are several scenes
where women are beaten. One woman is beaten to death by a man
who then proceeds to lick the blood off of her face.
The
action scenes were decent, but there could have been more of them
and there wasn't too much gore, but vampire movies shouldn't have
all that much. There is, however, an ample amount of blood that
is used very nicely. The way this movie was made, it's almost
hard to tell that it's low budget.
What
sets this movie apart from other vampire movies is the vampires
themselves. They are protrayed as real people, but just have been
dealt a "bad hand." They have no supernatural powers
except for some enhanced senses and there was no evidence of them
being stronger than an ordinary human. The vampires in this movie
are junkies. Their addiction is blood, and when Ruby is sitting
in a hotel room trying to quit "cold turkey" she was
going through withdrawal. This reminded me a bit of [b]Trainspotting[/b].
The
bites are also different from typical vampires. They are not immortal.
Instead of the two marks on the neck, we are shown a full human
bite mark. The standard weaknesses aren't in play either. Holy
water and garlic don't work, although sunlight causes their skin
to crisp up. It seems the best way to kill them is by a stake
through the heart, a bullet in the head, or by draining all of
their blood. Of course any ordinary human would die with these
methods as well.
While
this was very good, there is some bad but not much. The only bad
I can think of is that it's not as graphic as I would have liked
and the story moves very slowly and plays out as a horror/drama.
This
is Lawrence Pearce's first film and it's done very well. Like
I said, it runs a bit slow and it's more dramatic than action-packed,
but if you like vampire movies that are out of the norm, you may
enjoy this movie. The movie will be released in the US on DVD
in July of 2007. Personally, I can't wait for the US Release or
the sequel.
Even
though the movie moved really slow and more action would have
been very welcome, I'm giving this 8 out of 10 strippers that
I would actually pay for.
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