Neil Jordan's "Byzantium" is a vampire film worth seeking with Saoirse Ronan and Gemma Arterton

It's unfortunate "Byzantium" got lost because of an awful distribution where it suffered the doomed VOD/Theatrical release. That, by itself, showed the studio had no faith in Neil Jordan's movie which was a bummer because "Byzantium" was Neil Jordan's first Horror movie since "Interview with the Vampire" and it is even better than it. A atmospheric movie about a vampire mother and daughter who take shelter in a coastal resort. While the mother, Clara (Gemma Arterton, the MVP) tries to keep their secret under wraps, her daughter, Eleanor (Saoirse Ronan), struggles not only to fit in but with the realization that she and Clara need human blood to survive.

I think the reason why "Byzantium" got the short end of the stick was because the movie isn't "scary" in the conventional way. It's more like a supernatural thriller and it also deals with the growing pains of youth as well as paranoia through Gemma Arterton's excellent performance. Ronan is good as usual and she manages to overcome the hammy theatrics of her co-star, Caleb Landry Jones who mumbles every line he says, but Arterton steals the movie. Her Clara might appear as a mischievous tart at first but then you realize there's a lot to her. As lethal as she can be, her maternal devotion to Eleanor is moving and you sense that what Clara wants is a home where she can be at peace even if the temporary place she gets isn't initially ideal.

Submitted November 24, 2017 at 02:36AM by Pedro645 http://ift.tt/2A69vFy