We Are the Night (2010)

            “Wouldn’t you grab onto them with both arms and never, never let them go,” the narrator questions the audience in the beginning sequence of We Are the Night.  Essentially the story revolves around a girl named Lena (portrayed by Karoline Herfurth) and a group of vampires led by Louise (portrayed by Nina Hoss).  I am always delighted to find vampire movies that somewhat keep to the original idea of vampires – lots of blood, no sunlight, no sparkles.  This movie kicks off with an entire airplane full of victims.  In fact, most of the body count in this movie is actually found in the first ten minutes.  But I digress.  Viewers see the airplane full of victims, and the three lady vamps (interesting concept in this move, there are no male vampires) as they prepare to jump out of the doomed vessel.  Then the movie cuts to Lena and running from Tom the cop (portrayed by Max Riemelt) – and she is giving him quite the chase.  She even manages to grasp (and then continues to hang on to) a barbed wire fence, which bloodied up her hands pretty bad. Lena runs into the group of vamps at one of Louise’s clubs, and Louise immediately has an attraction to Lena because of her eyes.  Louise bites Lena and there is an excellent sequence in which Lena is beginning to become a vampire.  At one point, Lena runs to the fridge and grabs some hamburger meat and sucks the blood out of it, even grabbing the meat tray and drinking the blood off of that when she was done.  Beautiful.

            The gore in this film is done well, and there is plenty of blood to satiate the horror fiend’s appetite.  At one point Charlotte (portrayed by Jennifer Ulrich, and coincidently my favorite character in the film) is getting barked at by a guy in a restaurant about her cigarette, so she puts the smoke out in her eye and winks at him.  It was cute, and provided viewers with a unique portrayal of the regeneration abilities vampires generally are gifted with.   Nora (portrayed by Anna Fischer and my other fave character in this movie) also proved to be a fun addition to the film; when the security guard gets sliced and is bleeding, her hungry facial expressions make the scene all the more compelling and fang-tastic.  I do have one negative critique, when Lena is given her new whip (super fancy car) to drive around; she keys the car before getting into it.  I wasn’t really sure what kind of statement this was intended to make, and it didn’t fit with the rest of the scene. 

            We Are the Night was originally written/filmed in Germany, but for those who do not enjoy subtitled films this movie is dubbed into English (and decently dubbed, I might add).  That being said, I’d like to see the same film in German with subtitles, so I could hear the original actors inflections and such.  I personally prefer to hear the language and read subtitles than watched a dubbed film.  I think the film is geared more toward Ann Rice style vampires and not Stephanie Meyers works…so I would not call this film ‘an answer to’ or ‘a creation because of’ Twilight.  The vamps in this film note that the blood of evil men tastes sweeter, and that is most definitely a throw back to Rice’s fanged ones, as well as the rich way in which the immortal characters live (Lestat, anyone?).  I would call this film a must-see for those that like a little drama mixed in with their horror, and for people who dig vamps that don’t sparkle.  Number of killers?  Basically four, but there are a few more than the main four mixed in there.  Body count?  About fifteen.  Boob count?  Zero.  Cheap thrills?  Zero.  Actual creeps given?  Zero.  Entertainment: Loads.  Raven’s Scream Meter Says: 3.5 out of 5 screams – a delightfully fun fang fest! Bonus points for both the creepy carnival scenes, as well as VAST playing during the ending credits.  Love.