DVD Release
Ladies and Gentlemen, you’ve all heard me go on and on about how Hollywood filmmakers are emasculating our classic monsters (i.e. Vampires, Werewolves) by romanticizing them. They’re ruthlessly outing our creatures like Fundamentalists do with Politicians and their gay love affairs! They no longer rend flesh and gnaw on the bones of our children…they simply slip into pleather, trim their five o’ clock shadows and spray on some David Beckham cologne. Vampires no longer aspire to suck blood and enslave virgins…nope…they’d much rather stare longingly into a soccer mom’s eyes and count the ways in which he’s prepared to unselfishly please her.
You bastards. Look what you’ve done to our monsters.
As a rule I avoid any and all vampire or werewolf flicks my girlfriend insists, “…looks kinda cool.” If it even remotely resembles an Evanescence video, count me out. I have no clitoris that needs stimulating nor am I an unselfish lover. I’m a greedy, sexist pig that wants nothing to do with any movie that puts thoughts of romance in my woman’s head.
Thankfully a small handful of horror filmmakers feel the same way I do about our icons and their pop culture overhaul. Monster movies are starting to get back to the basics…violence and bloodshed. This new breed of monster movie is dark, gritty and original. Unfortunately, “gritty” may someday take the place of “metro-bisexual” and we’ll start seeing nothing but films like Snatch with vampires! Admittedly that doesn’t sound too bad but as we all know it’ll be done to death and we’ll be begging for some kind of relief from “gritty” in no time. Until then let’s kick back and enjoy films like…
…Night Junkies. Sounds cool, right? Thankfully, it is. I must admit I wasn’t blown away by the whole “bloodlust = drug addiction” angle as it had been done before with films like The Addiction, Habit and (recently) The Thirst but it still offered up something worthwhile. It’s a dark slice of urban romance combined with the sleazy underbelly of the flesh trade and a vicious, women hating serial killer to boot.
Somebody is stalking the dark streets of London and leaving mutilated bodies in their wake. The victims are primarily women considered “loose” in their morals but right now that’s the furthest thing from Ruby’s (Katie Winter) mind. Maxie (Jonathan Coyne), the owner of the strip club Ruby works for, is demanding that she start turning tricks during her private dances. On top of the pressure to exchange sex for money, one of the managers (René Zagger) in the club is giving her a hard time for not going to bed with him. What’s a working girl to do?
One night while walking home Ruby is confronted by a horny street hood looking for a little action. To avoid the situation she informs the hood that her boyfriend is waiting for her in the local diner and she quickly enters, sits down and strikes up small talk with a good looking chap named Vincent (Giles Alderson). Once the hood leaves, she prepares to leave but decides to accept Vincent’s gracious invitation to eat, drink and get to know him better. One thing leads to another and Ruby ends up at Vincent’s flat in a passionate embrace but there’s more to Vincent than meets the eye…he’s not quite like other people. Vincent needs blood to survive, he’s a vampire and Ruby is his next fix.
Fortunately for her, Vincent allows his feelings to get in the way of his hunger and Ruby runs off after being bitten. Vincent does his best to help her acclimate to her new vampiric nature but Ruby wants nothing to do with the taking of human life. Can the dark lovers survive without taking blood and can Ruby avoid becoming the next victim of the serial killer?
Night Junkies won’t ever be considered a vampire cinema classic but that certainly doesn’t mean it doesn’t hold its own. It’s got a lot going for it including quality production values, bad ass dialogue and some gorgeous women. While there wasn’t a fang in sight, there was enough blood to keep the gorehounds relatively happy. The cinematography was adequate and made good use of colors and lighting and the score wasn’t too trendy or obnoxious. Is that neo-noir I taste?
One thing I especially enjoyed about the film was Jonathan Coyne’s lowlife pimp and business owner, Maxie. Coyne was fucking awesome, he reminded me of Bob Hoskin’s Bart from Danny the Dog (aka Unleashed). He was raw and nasty not unlike that uncle you’re not allowed to talk about. I think it’s safe to say I’m a Coyne fan after seeing this flick.
By the way, did I mention Katie Winter is as cute as a button? Well she is, she’s “Mia Kirshner in The Crow: City of Angels” cute.
Now, where there’s good there’s also a bit of bad so here it is. The character of Vincent was a bit too wishy washy for my tastes. I was pretty unimpressed with Giles Alderson’s character and totally turned off by the occasional bits of nasal narration. I’m not a big narration type of guy anyhow unless it’s The Dresden Files or the international cut of Blade Runner.
I’d also like to point out two issues with the release itself: the sound and the extras (or lack thereof). The sound mix seemed to be a bit low so I was forced to turn my system up a bit higher in order to hear some of the low talking. I also have crude American ears as well so some of the faster bits of U.K. English were completely lost on me until I jacked up the volume. C’mon people, no audio options?
I was also COMPLETELY unimpressed with Allumination’s so so DVD menu design & lack of English subs for the hearing impaired. I’m not quite certain whether Allumination or Lawrence Pearce (or both) are responsible for the lack of extras like “making of” featurettes and so on but I can say with 100% certainty no horror fan is going to appreciate paying $20 for a DVD with absolutely nothing on it. Fans are far from stupid and these days they’re demanding more for their money, this release is offering them LESS for MORE. Tsk tsk.
Good film, disappointing release. Cross your fingers for a better release in the future or, at the very least, a drop in price.
