About.com Rating

In 1994, director Neil Jordan had the daunting task of filming the big-screen adaptation of the Anne Rice's beloved vampire novel Interview with the Vampire. The results, both creatively and commercially, were solid if not exceptional -- just good enough for Warner Brothers to reluctantly greenlight a smaller (and inferior) sequel, Queen of the Damned in 2002 before the rights to the novels reverted back to Rice.

Now, nearly 20 years later, Jordan is returning to vampire territory with another adaptation -- this time one carrying much less pressure and expectation (and budget), since the source material, the 2008 play A Vampire Story by English writer Moira Buffini, is so little known.

The Plot

On the run from dark forces, a pair of mysterious women move to a small coastal town in England. While bookish 16-year-old Eleanor (Saoirse Ronan) begins taking classes at the local high school, sultry older sister Clara (Gemma Arterton) finds them a place to stay by befriending sad sack Noel (Daniel Mays), who runs a struggling seaside hotel called Byzantium.

Eleanor, meanwhile, is reluctantly drawn to schoolmate Frank (Caleb Landry Jones), to whom she reveals details of her past in hopes that it will somehow change her repetitive, seemingly dead-end life. She's tired, you see, because she and Cara are vampires who've been around for two centuries. She relates the details of their creation and reveals why they're perpetually on the run, but as she does so, she puts Frank in the line of fire of a 200-year-old grudge that follows her to town.

The End Result

Even if Neil Jordan didn't direct Byzantium, it would still draw comparisons to Interview with the Vampire due to its 200-year scope, epic running time (118 minutes) and flashback-laden, narration format. Thankfully for us, though, Jordan is indeed behind the camera, and he lends lush visuals along with his flair for colorful, fairytale storytelling. Despite a budget that pales in comparison to Interview, Byzantium holds up well, with strong production value and excellent performances from a less famous but no less talented cast.

In fact, I found Byzantium to be the more satisfying film -- perhaps partially because expectations weren't as high, but more so because the leaner script feels more purposeful and personal, combining an evolving mystery with a compelling mythology and an emotionally complex tale of familial love, not to mention a dose of feminism not often delivered as pointedly in genre fare as it is here.

Vampire diehards might not care for the dearth of traditional elements in Byzantium -- the vamps have no issues with daylight, and there is no holy water, garlic, crosses, hypnotism or animal transformations -- but they'll be happy to know that the human-vampire love story between Eleanor and Frank is more Let the Right One In than Twilight. They'll also be happy to know that Byzantium is probably the best vampire movie since the Let the Right One In remake Let Me In and the underrated German film We Are the Night. It's a dreamy, lyrical, refreshing entry in the legacy of vampire cinema.

The Skinny

• Acting: B (No weak spots in a cast full of familiar, if not famous, faces.)
• Direction: B+ (Beautifully shot with a dreamlike, dark fairytale atmosphere.)
• Script: B (Mysterious, epic and heartfelt.)
• Gore/Effects: B- (Solid, if not plentiful, gore.)
• Overall: B (A classy, sexy, dramatic vampire film.)

Byzantium is directed by Neil Jordan and is rated R by the MPAA for bloody violence, sexual content and language. Release date: June 28, 2013 (on demand July 1).

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