I’d heard great things about this movie, but with the onslaught of vampires in the past couple of years, I was hesitant to watch. But who can say no when it’s available to stream on Netflix?
So what’s it about?: A 12 year old boy doubles as a punching bag at school when he meets his new neighbor: a little girl with a taste for blood. And then some chaos ensues.
The Good: In a world of sparkling vegetarian vamps it’s nice to see a very realistic depiction of vampires (if there can be such a thing). No special mystical powers, no underground society, and though we presume they are there, these vamps don’t even show fangs! But one of the highlights of this film is that even without the added gimmick of a vampire character, there is still a haunting tale of child bullying and friendships underneath it all.
The Bad: For a film labelled under the “Horror” genre, this film is not scary at all. But even as a drama, this film suffers from the same problem as most teenage dramas on television: the adults are boring and take away from the root of the story. Some adult characters like the parents are somewhat necessary, but anybody not related to a main character seemed to take away from the story. And apparently the DVD subtitles aren’t as good as the Theatrical subtitles. Sadly I never saw this in theaters, but I could definitely see how some of the lines seemed a little dumbed down. I would def like to see the original translation.
The Verdict: A great movie for Halloween if you want to be able to sleep at night. And if vampire movies could go more in this direction in the future, that would be greatly appreciated.