Byzantium

"Byzantium"

"As Reported by Dollyforme"

The very lovely Gemma Arterton stars in this great little Vampire movie – she is really YUM in this movie. "Byzantium" is the most gorgeous vampire film in recent memory, starring a small niche of talented actors and actresses with bright and successful futures ahead of them.

Saoirse Ronan is by far the most skilled actress of her generation, with each performance delivered bringing her closer and closer to that showstopping performance of her career. As a young vampire, Elanor Webb has an itch to tell her story after centuries on the run with her harlot of a mother, the uber attractive Gemma Arterton.

Landing in a small town and living in a dilapidated old hotel called the Byzantium, we learn of their history before and after becoming vampires through different encounters between them and the mortals they come in contact with. We learn about Elanor as she plays piano with perfection, feeds on only those that invite her to, and writes her biography over and over again, only to throw her words off a balcony or into the ocean. She's unaware of the brotherhood of vampires, lead by a strong Sam Riley, hunting them as they move from city to city. The chemistry between Arterton and Ronan as mother and daughter stuck together for eternity carried the film.

Ronan's void looks and deep thoughts are reminiscent of her alien-inhabited role in "The Host" but with a passion and motivation lacking in that film. "Byzantium" is sexy and stylish despite its surroundings and helped mostly by Arterton's promiscuous, yet kind nature. The plot captures your attention in flashbacks and missing pieces of the puzzle, filled in with each little story told. Neil Jordan makes an impressive return to the vampire lore, producing an even more entertaining fantasy than his previous endeavor, "Interview with a Vampire".

There are nods to classic vampire films (the seaside setting is an obvious nod to Harry Kumel's 'Daughters of Darkness', and the gothic flashbacks recall the glory days of Hammer), and barbed jibes at the current watered down Pattinson representation of the vampire (meeting Ronan's boyfriend, the pale faced Jones, Arterton mocks "you're just the type Eleanor goes for, as sexy as a pair of shoes").

Jordan even references his own 'The Company of Wolves', clothing Ronan in a red-hooded jacket. He also gives us not one, but two, shamelessly fake, decapitated rubber heads. This is clearly a director working in a genre he loves, whilst remembering to keep it fun, something many of today's horror film-makers seem to have forgotten.

Rated R for bloody violence and nudity, language and sexualcontent. All the goodstuff you watch a summer movie for. See it in the theatres now or just wait to do a rental of it.