Vampyrer Movie Review, Trailer, Film Still and Poster

Sweden 2008
Director: Peter Pontikis
Cast: Jenny Lampa, Ruth Vega Fernandez, David Dencik, Peter Järn, Jörgen Persson
Rating: -
Release Date: 2008
Running Time: 1 hour 11 minutes 6 secs

The Movie Review

Vampyrer film still 1


VAMPYRER (NOT LIKE OTHERS)
Storyline:
Cast:
Ending:
Overall:

Scary vampire, terrifying vampire, majestic vampire, creepy vampire, sneaky vampire, sexy-Beckinsale vampire, bratty-Sutherland vampire, sword-Snipes vampire, the list could go on and on as we have often seen them all from movies. But heartbreaking vampire? Not to mention unbelievably cute too? Arguably a rarity I suppose. "Vampyrer" or in English title "Not Like Others" is Swedish movie telling about those cute vampires.

Vampyrer which was both written and directed by Peter Pontikis revolves around the life of two sisters, Vera (Jenny Lampa) and Vanja (Ruth Vega Fernandez). Both are vampires, but different with what majority people would think of vampires, Vera and Vanja don't have the strength of vampire, they can not fly and they even don't have fangs. But they have the thirst for blood. Vanja who is older, decides to leave the vampire way-of-life and want to lead a normal life with a man she falls in love with. While Vera doesn't. Unfortunately for Vanja, her dream seems more to be out of reach after one unfortunate night in a club when Vera deliberately kills a biker who harasses her, and drains his blood too. Now Vera and Vanja are on the run in the middle of quiet cold Stockholm night where 4 other motorcycle gang members are pursuing them to every corner of the city. Could they every get out of this problem in one piece?

There are many reasons why people watch movies, and there are also many reasons why people are willing to watch a movie till the ending credits roll. For me personally the reasons to watch Vampyrer till it ends are very personally. Professionally speaking, of course the reason is to write this review for fellow moviegoers, but if not for certain personal-subjective reasons, I would have probably slept in the middle of viewing Vampyrer. Vampyrer's storyline is as confused as Vanja's mind herself, it tip-toes between thriller and drama and it also tip-toes between boredom and intriguing. Most of the time all we see is Vera and Vanja running, to a cinema, to a subway, to a taxi driver and to.. to.. to.., well to run! It doesn't make us feel emotionally-attached to the characters and the four bikers are like soulless helmet-n-jacket wearing dudes. They don't even have a line to say. The thrill is so vague and so is the drama. There is even one scene (screenshot upper-right below) where it resembles a lot the train scene from The Lost Boys (1987) (which was headlined by Kiefer Sutherland).

And as for why I never felt asleep during Vampyrer is because of 2 things and two things only. First would be Jenny Lampa, her performance is captivating with her cute face and adorable body language (no wonder the biker has a crush on her in the club). Her acting quality in Vampyrer is certainly not that awesome, but she manages to control every scene she's in. And the second would be the great shots of Stockholm at night, and that is also because I'm a big fan of Night Photography. When I asked my friend her opinion about the city shots, she replied "Yeah, it's an interesting city, but so what?" But aside of my personal interests of Vampyrer, this movie actually quite enjoyable, if you don't mind the bit dragging pace, because all actors/actresses don't overdo stuff and the scene could flow naturally. It's a good thing that Vampyrer doesn't take too many minutes to finish the story.

It is quite a tragedy actually, a movie with potentials to portray that even vampires have souls too, turns out to be soulless. I would love to see another movie like this with more enhanced quality in every department, hopefully it would still be Jenny Lampa who headlines it.