Vampire (2011 film)

Last updated
Vampire
Vampire2011IwaiFilmPoster.jpg
Directed by Shunji Iwai
Written byShunji Iwai
Produced byShunji Iwai
Tim Kwok
Starring Kevin Zegers
Keisha Castle-Hughes
Amanda Plummer
Trevor Morgan
Adelaide Clemens
Yū Aoi
Rachael Leigh Cook
CinematographyShunji Iwai
Edited byShunji Iwai
Music byShunji Iwai
Production
companies
Convergence Entertainment, Rockwell Eyes, V Project Canada Productions
Release date
  • January 22, 2011 (2011-01-22)(Sundance)
Running time
118 minutes
CountriesUnited States
Japan
LanguageEnglish

Vampire is a 2011 dramatic film written, directed and produced by Shunji Iwai, who also serves as the film's editor, composer and cinematograher and starring Kevin Zegers as a teacher who believes himself to be a blood-drinking vampire. It was first released at the Sundance Film Festival on January 22, 2011, and is the first film he has directed in English. [1]

Contents

Synopsis

Simon is a seemingly ordinary biology teacher that spends much of his spare time caring for his Alzheimers-ridden mother Helga. This ends up not being the case, as Simon believes himself to be a vampire and spends much of his time looking at online sites for suicidal women who would make for easy prey. One such woman, Jellyfish, is tricked into believing that she and Simon will both be killing one another, only for Simon to drink her blood after he administers sleeping pills and draws blood from her. Along with his vampiric hobby, Simon tries to keep his mother indoors by putting her in a straitjacket-esque contraption tied to several large balloons. It is when Simon meets Laura that things begin to unravel, as she grows obsessed with him to the point where she breaks into his home. Things begin to further devolve when Renfield, a man who also believes himself to be a vampire, emerges onto the scene and is far more violent than Simon ever dared to be.

Cast

Production

Iwai was inspired to create Vampire after he "got the idea about a serial killer who was more like a friend to his victims" and liked the question of "if the victims are working with the killer in helping kill themselves, would it be considered murder or aided suicide?". [2] [3] While further developing the idea for Vampire Iwai wanted to "strip away the romantic idea behind vampirism", but also wanted to explore the idea of a vampire that is "not a supernatural creature but rather a real human being". [4] He based the character of Simon partially on "the strange habits that we all have" and stated that if he had not come up with the idea of Simon, he would have likely passed on Vampire's theme. [4] Iwai penned the script for Vampire himself. However, as Iwai had difficulty with spoken English dialogue, asked the performers to "not follow the script too closely and try to be more spontaneous so that the dialogue would be natural." [4]

Actor Kevin Zegers was asked to perform in the film after Iwai met Zegers while dining with friends. [5] Zegers immediately accepted and was one of the first actors brought in. [5] Filming for Vampire took place in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada during spring of 2010, and Zegers later stated that the process was very taxing due to the film's nature. [5] Iwai confirmed this, saying that the weather was "always gray and rainy, which can bring the mood down" and that he "gave a lot of freedom to Kevin with his character, Simon, so he really took on the sadness and troubles Simon’s character was going through." [4]

Reception

Critical reception for Vampire has been mixed. [6] [7] Much of the film's criticism stemmed from its length, as media outlets such as Screen Daily and the Montreal Gazette felt that it detracted from the film's overall story. [8] [9] Variety praised Iwai’s "fastidiously composed scenes of ritual bloodletting" as one moment where the film "springs to life", but remarked that the film had a limited appeal. [10] The Hollywood Reporter had a similar opinion in their review, with the bottom line reading "Artsy but alienating quasi-horror film offers a non-supernatural alternative to Count Dracula." [11] io9 was more positive in their review, stating "Fans of more traditional vampire fare may not find what they’re looking for in this piece, but anyone who has seen Iwai’s other work, especially his masterpiece of oddball suspense Pikunikku (Picnic) , will be right at home with his American debut." [12] Reviewers for Twitch Film gave predominantly positive reviews, [13] echoing io9's sentiments and stating that "for those not turned off by some graphic violence and a whole lot of artistic license, there is a lot to like about this portrait of a killer more empathetic than psychopathic." [14]

Awards

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Shunji Iwai</span> Japanese film director, video artist, writer and documentary maker

Shunji Iwai is a Japanese filmmaker, video artist, writer and documentary maker.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Renfield</span> Fictional character from Bram Stokers Dracula

R. M. Renfield is a fictional character who appears in Bram Stoker's 1897 Gothic horror novel Dracula. He is Count Dracula's deranged, fanatically devoted servant and familiar, helping him in his plan to turn Mina Harker into a vampire in return for a continuous supply of insects to consume and the promise of immortality. Throughout the novel, he resides in an asylum, where he is treated by Dr. John Seward.

<i>Dracula: Dead and Loving It</i> 1995 film by Mel Brooks

Dracula: Dead and Loving It is a 1995 comedy horror film directed by Mel Brooks and starring Leslie Nielsen. It is a spoof of Bram Stoker's novel Dracula and of some of the story's well-known adaptations. Brooks co-authored the screenplay with Steve Haberman and Rudy De Luca. He also appears as Dr. Van Helsing. The film's other stars include Steven Weber, Amy Yasbeck, Peter MacNicol, Harvey Korman, and Anne Bancroft.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kevin Zegers</span> Canadian actor

Kevin Zegers is a Canadian actor. He is known for his roles as Josh Framm in the Air Bud film series, Toby Osbourne in Transamerica (2005), Damien Dalgaard in the CW teen drama Gossip Girl, and as rookie FBI Agent Brendon Acres on the ABC crime drama The Rookie: Feds. He has also starred in the films Dawn of the Dead (2004), It's a Boy Girl Thing (2006), The Jane Austen Book Club (2007), Fifty Dead Men Walking (2008), Frozen (2010), The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones, and Nighthawks (2019).

<i>All About Lily Chou-Chou</i> 2001 Japanese film by Shunji Iwai

All About Lily Chou-Chou is a 2001 Japanese experimental coming-of-age film, written, directed, and edited by Shunji Iwai. The narrative follows several 14-year-old Japanese students, examining how enigmatic solo musician Lily Chou-Chou influences their lives.

<i>Dracula 3D</i> 2012 Italian film

Dracula 3D is a 2012 vampire horror film co-written and directed by Dario Argento and starring Thomas Kretschmann, Rutger Hauer, Marta Gastini, and Unax Ugalde. An Italian-Spanish-French co-production, the film is Argento's first 3D film. Kretschmann took the role of Dracula; he later played Abraham van Helsing in the Budapest-shot television series Dracula.

<i>Hana and Alice</i> 2004 Japanese film

Hana and Alice is a 2004 Japanese teen romance film by director Shunji Iwai. The film, shot on HD digital video by the director of photography, Noboru Shinoda, who shared a longstanding working relationship with Shunji Iwai, concerns the life of two girls, the titular Hana and Alice, and the stress placed on their friendship as they move into high school.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sion Sono</span> Japanese filmmaker, author, and poet (born 1961)

Sion Sono is a Japanese filmmaker, author, and poet. Best known on the festival circuit for the film Love Exposure (2008), he has been called "the most subversive filmmaker working in Japanese cinema today", a "stakhanovist filmmaker" with an "idiosyncratic" career.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Yū Aoi</span> Japanese actress and model

Yu Aoi is a Japanese actress and model. She made her film debut as Shiori Tsuda in Shunji Iwai's 2001 film All About Lily Chou-Chou. She subsequently portrayed Tetsuko Arisugawa in Hana and Alice (2004), also directed by Iwai, Kimiko Tanigawa in the hula dancing film Hula Girls and Hagumi Hanamoto in the 2006 live-action adaptation of the Honey and Clover manga series.

<i>The Night Flier</i> (film) 1997 American horror film

The Night Flier is a 1997 American horror film based on the 1988 short story of the same name by Stephen King. Directed and co-written by Mark Pavia, the film stars Miguel Ferrer as Richard Dees, a tabloid reporter who, while investigating a series of murders committed in airfields, begins to suspect that the killer may be a vampire.

Clinical vampirism, more commonly known as Renfield's syndrome, is an obsession with drinking blood. The earliest presentation of clinical vampirism in psychiatric literature was a psychoanalytic interpretation of two cases, contributed by Richard L. Vanden Bergh and John. F. Kelley. As the authors point out, over 50,000 people addicted to drinking blood have appeared in psychiatric literature from 1892 to 2010. This was documented in the work of Austrian forensic psychiatrist Richard von Krafft-Ebing. Many medical publications concerning clinical vampirism can be found in the literature of forensic psychiatry, with the behavior being reported as an aspect of extraordinary violent crimes.

Brett Simon is an American commercial, music video and film director.

Screen Anarchy, previously known as Twitch Film or Twitch, is a Canadian English-language website featuring news and reviews of mainly international, independent and cult films. The website was founded in 2004 by Todd Brown. In addition to films, the website covers various film festivals from Sundance, Toronto and Fantasia to Sitges, Cannes and the Berlinale. They partnered with Instinctive Film in 2011 to found Interactor, a crowd funding and viral marketing site, and with Indiegogo in 2013. Brown is a partner at XYZ Films, and Variety credits Twitch Film as helping to popularize the production company's films.

The Familiar is a 2009 comedy horror short film starring Torrance Coombs, Paul Hubbard and Rachel Sehl. It tells the story of a naive vampire fan who becomes the personal assistant to a belligerent vampire. It won awards at the Sitges Film Festival, Bram Stoker International Film Festival, Charleston International Film Festival, the Rincon International Film Festival, the Seattle True Independent Film Festival and the River Bend Film Festival. It has been nominated for several Leo Awards as well as Best Short Film at the DGC Awards.

<i>I Survived BTK</i> 2010 American film

I Survived BTK, is a feature-length, true-crime/horror documentary produced by UNSUB Films and directed by Marc D. Levitz.

<i>The Raid 2</i> 2014 Indonesian action crime film

The Raid 2, also known as The Raid: Retaliation, is a 2014 Indonesian action thriller film written, directed and edited by the Welsh filmmaker Gareth Evans. It is the sequel to the 2011 film The Raid and stars Iko Uwais, Arifin Putra, Oka Antara, Tio Pakusadewo, Alex Abbad, Julie Estelle, Ryuhei Matsuda, Kenichi Endō, and Kazuki Kitamura. In the film, Rama is sent undercover to expose the corrupt police officials colluding with the crime families of Jakarta's criminal underworld.

<i>The Case of Hana & Alice</i> Japanese anime film

The Case of Hana & Alice is a Japanese rotoscoped youth drama film written, directed, edited, co-scored and co-produced by Shunji Iwai. It is the prequel to Iwai's 2004 live-action film Hana and Alice. The film was released on February 20, 2015. A manga adaptation by Dowman Sayman was serialized on Shogakukan's Yawaraka Spirits web magazine from February 16 to July 27, 2015.

<i>A Bride for Rip Van Winkle</i> 2016 Japanese film

A Bride for Rip Van Winkle is a 2016 Japanese drama film written, directed, edited and co-produced by Shunji Iwai, based on his novel of the same name.

<i>Renfield</i> (film) 2023 film by Chris McKay

Renfield is a 2023 American action comedy horror film directed by Chris McKay and written by Ryan Ridley, based on a story by Robert Kirkman, who also served as a producer alongside McKay, Samantha Nisenboim, David Alpert, and the duo of Bryan and Sean Furst. Inspired by characters from the 1897 novel Dracula by Bram Stoker, the film stars Nicholas Hoult, Awkwafina, Ben Schwartz, Shohreh Aghdashloo, Brandon Scott Jones, Adrian Martinez, and Nicolas Cage.

Friends After 3.11 is a 2011 Japanese documentary film directed and co-edited by Shunji Iwai. The film explores the aftermath of the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami, featuring actress Miyuki Matsuda and anti-nuclear activist Kokoro Fujinami.

References

  1. ↑ Brown, Todd. "Sundance 2011: Three Clips From Shunji Iwai's VAMPIRE". Twitch Film. Archived from the original on October 2, 2012. Retrieved 7 March 2014.
  2. ↑ Hanson, Jeff. "Q&A: Vampire". Sundance. Retrieved 7 March 2014.
  3. ↑ "Meet the 2011 Sundance Filmmakers : "Vampire" Director Iwai Shunji". IndieWire. 20 January 2011. Retrieved 7 March 2014.
  4. 1 2 3 4 Eggersten, Chris (2 February 2011). "Sundance '11 Interview: 'Vampire' Director Iwai Shunji". Bloody Disgusting. Retrieved 7 March 2014.
  5. 1 2 3 Brown, Todd. "Twitch Visits The Set Of Shunji Iwai's VAMPIRE". Twitch Film. Retrieved 7 March 2014.
  6. ↑ "Vampire". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved 7 March 2014.
  7. ↑ Abele, Robert (23 May 2013). "Movie review: 'Vampire's' serial-killer story a draining experience". LA Times. Retrieved 7 March 2014.
  8. ↑ "Vampire (review)". Screen Daily. Retrieved 7 March 2014.
  9. ↑ "Fantasia 2011: Vampire". Montreal Gazette. Retrieved 7 March 2014.
  10. ↑ Nelson, Rob (23 January 2011). "Review: Vampire". Variety. Retrieved 7 March 2014.
  11. ↑ Defore, John (26 January 2011). "SUNDANCE REVIEW: Vampire". THR. Retrieved 7 March 2014.
  12. ↑ Shankel, Jason (13 October 2013). "Vampire Explores the Perils of Online Dating and Gothic Cosplay". io9. Retrieved 7 March 2014.
  13. ↑ Rowan-Legg, Shelagh M. "Sitges 2011: VAMPIRE Review". Twitch Film. Retrieved 7 March 2014.
  14. ↑ Aldrich, Ryland. "Berlin 2011: VAMPIRE Review". Twitch Film. Retrieved 7 March 2014.
  15. ↑ "2011 Fantasia Film Festival Winners Announced". Dread Central. 15 July 2013. Retrieved 7 March 2014.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.