Starring: Gemma Arterton, Saoirse Ronan, Daniel Mays, Johnny Lee Miller, Tom Hollander

Director: Neil Jordan

I have to say that I was somewhat sceptical when I went to the screening of Byzantium as this was yet another take on the Vampire movie.

Don’t get me wrong I’m a sucker (sorry!) for horror movies and especially the fanged variety but let’s face it we’ve all been vampired out over the last few years in both film and TV. We have the beautiful people in the Twilight Saga and The Vampire Diaries and then we have the erotic Vampire porn in True Blood to the utterly nasty and very messy 30 Days of Night.

However, I was pleasantly surprised with this low-budget British movie from director Neil Jordan who brought us The Crying Game (92), Mona Lisa (82), The Company of Wolves (84) and one of my favourite interpretations of un-dead story Interview with the Vampire (94).

Byzantium is set in modern day England and follows the daily survival of a mother and daughter who just happen to be 200-year old vampires. The mother Clara (Gemma Arterton) is ruthlessly protective of her daughter Eleanor (Saoirse Ronan, apparently it’s pronounced Sur-Shuh) and would not hesitate to rip the head off anyone who threatens them. Eleanor is forever sixteen and longs to lead a normal life and in diary style writes her life story every day, only to tear it up every day. Eleanor has accepted her fate and her instinct draws her to take human blood but she chooses to feed only off the old or weak that are ready to give up their life when their time comes.

Forced to leave their grime ridden flat they both flee the city suburb to escape The Brotherhood, an ancient sect that have been tracking the pair since the early 19th century. They hitch a ride to a seaside town where Clara meets lonely and depressed Noel (Danny Mays) who allows Clara and Eleanor to stay in his recently departed Mother’s run down B&B which Clara soon turns into a brothel to earn a living. Eleanor is sick of constantly living a lie and yearns to tell the truth about who and what she is. She befriends a young man Frank (Caleb Landry Jones) who is of a similar human age. Frank has a strange personality and an open mind as well as being a leukaemia sufferer which intrigues her. Frank becomes smitten with Eleanor but will Clara allow this relationship to grow or will her over protective instinct rise up?

The story moves from the current era to the early 1800’s when the pair were created and we have a back-story involving two young military men. Darvell (Sam Riley) is a gentlemanly officer while his fellow officer and companion Ruthven (Johnny Lee Miller) is a complete cad with a real nasty streak.

This is more ‘Let the Right One In’ than ‘Twilight’ and the mother daughter relationship is a nice touch. You really care for these two blood sucking fugitives. There is a slight similarity with the ‘Interview with the Vampire’ two main characters. Clara has the vampire killer instinct of Lestat, whereas Eleanor reluctantly takes lives to survive as did Louis.

The film is based on a Moira Buffini ‘young adult’ drama called A Vampire Story which played at the National Theatre. Brit producer Stephen Woolley took his daughter to see the play and was so impressed that he asked the author to write the screenplay for a film version.

According to Moira Buffini they only ever had Gemma Arterton and Saoirse Ronan in mind for then two lead roles. Arterton looks absolutely stunning throughout the film and plays the role with a dangerous edge. Ronan is still only nineteen years old but is very much a seasoned performer already with an Oscar nomination under her belt. She always puts in a great performance. Also watch out for an understated performance from Tom Hollander as the college teacher.

I really enjoyed this film and would recommend it as an alternative to the normal Vampire genre.

Four out of five stars.

Released in cinemas May 31st 2013

Certificate 15 .