This slow, bizarre film tells the story of a semi-benevolent Vampire who trolls suicide pact websites looking for vulnerable souls who he can convince to consensually bleed themselves to death- so that he can feed on their blood. There are a lot of other instances of people just not acting like real people ever would. This feels like something out of a terrible indie comedy (well, it did premier at Sundance!) and it just never works. The real failure of the film comes with the subplot involving Zegers' Alzheimers-ridden mother (Amanda Plummer), whom he keeps from wandering out of his apartment by attaching giant, white balloons to her. Of all the deaths I've encountered in movies this past month (I only watch horror films in October), this was by far the most terrifying to me, with the woman just left to stumble around trying to escape her plight.
#Tormented souls blood bag serial
There are a couple of killer sequences, particularly the film's only real horror sequence, where Zegers is forced to accompany another serial killer (Trevor Morgan) as he hunts and murders a woman by suffocating her with a plastic bag. The film is often lovely - aided by a gorgeous, ethereal musical score by Iwai himself. He actually believes himself to be a vampire, or maybe he wishes he were one, and he drinks the blood afterward. His pretenses are generally false - they believe he's going to commit suicide alongside them (or, alternately, that he's going to use the blood for scientific research on suicidals), but he is a gentle man. His victims, though, are consenting, wishing him to help them commit suicide. Kevin Zegers plays a high school biology teacher who has a secret life as a serial killer called the Vampire because he drains his victims' blood. With expectations adjusted accordingly, I liked it, at least a bit. Thankfully, though, it's a very interesting disaster.
It was so poorly reviewed that it barely even got released theatrically anywhere (only in Japan, as far as I can tell), and only recently became available in America via Amazon download. It was Iwai's English language debut, premiering at Sundance in January of 2011. However, if you really expect a vampire flick, better wait until the next 'Twilight' segment.įrom the director of two of the best films about teenagers ever made, All About Lily Chou Chou and Hana and Alice, Vampire is an idiosyncratic art film. To me, it's been worthwhile just for seeing that the styles of Japanese cinema - character vagueness, visual rendition, and most of all quietness - can be translated into English rather well. If you wonder what a Japanese film with American actors may look like, then this one may be very well for you. The proverbial 'vampire' is actually seen as a perversion of this theme, which becomes obvious in a rather gory parody of the 'serial killer' image, complete with fangs and cape. It's not so much about the story itself, which takes somewhat unfathomable turns and ends up in a confusing mêlée, but rather the visuals, which create a mystified, surreal and at times even humorous perspective on death. The focus isn't so much on why he wants to do this (apart from ambivalent references to the quest for immortality), but rather why these women want to die - and this is where I see a continuity with Iwai's other work. 'Vampire' follows a story which actually happened in Japan: a man convinces young women in suicide chat-rooms to die together with him, eventually tricking them so that he may consume their blood.
In 'All about Lily Chou-Chou', he explored bullying and underage prostitution against a backdrop of how virtual and real-life personalities differ, 'Swallowtail Butterfly' dealt with the ups and downs of a group of misfits bonding and betraying each other, and 'Hana & Alice' showed a close high-school-girl friendship with elements of rivalry over a particular boy. Iwai's staple theme is alienated youth and the thin line between friendship and destruction. If you're familiar with Iwai's work, then neither the subject matter nor the style come as much of a surprise. Rather, it presents an altogether uncomfortable view on real-life blood-thirst and a controversial look at suicidal obsession. But it would seem that the reason for this film's overall cold reception is precisely that it doesn't feature supernatural, love-lorn beings to satisfy inhibited sexual desires of self-destruction. It shouldn't really be necessary to point this out, after all the summary makes it very clear.
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