Director: Dennis Gansel
Screenplay: Jan Berger, Dennis Gansel
Starring: Karoline Herfurth, Nina Hoss, Jennifer Ulrich, Anna Fischer, Max Riemelt
Certificate: 15
Running time: 100 minutes
Release date: 15 October 2012 (Previewed 26 August 2012 at FrightFest 2012)
Hollywood seems to be stuck in a perpetual loop; remaking films that don’t need to be remade and always looking for a fresh twist on an old idea that’s already been covered to death. Therefore, it’s always refreshing to find a little gem that comes out of nowhere. We Are the Night is a German production regarding vampires. No, no, no falling asleep at the back. This is no Twilight wannabe or rip-off.
In a world where vampires exist, albeit only those of a female persuasion due to the fact that the males have been wiped out, we are initially introduced to Lena (Herfurth), who looks remarkably like a certain female lead character in a Swedish novel about tattoos. She picks the pocket of a pimp who is the subject of a police sting. Cop Tom (Riemelt) chases her down but she escapes after incapacitating him. Later that same night, Lena stumbles across a secret club and comes under the eye of Louise (Hoss), who is the leader of a trio of vampires. She turns Lena into one of them and she eventually begins to enjoy a life that mirrors the mantra of The Lost Boys – ‘Sleep all day. Party all night. Never grow old. Never Die.’ But immortality can become wearisome and the group begins to fragment as their misadventures come to the attention of Tom and his colleagues. As the net closes in, Lena must choose between her new life and the new powers that have been bestowed on her.
There are some really interesting ideas at work here and it’s nice to see a film that reverts to recognising the majority of vampire lore. There is plenty of the red stuff flying around and some neat cinematic tricks used to convey some of the skills that the girls have. The fact that the film begins with the aftermath of a massacre aboard a private jet only serves to pique the viewer’s interest. It’s unfortunate that, due to a very constrictive budget, the set pieces that follow never truly live up to that promise, but there is still enough here to warrant a viewing.
We’ll stop short of superlatives such as fangtastic etc, but we will recommend this to anyone who enjoys non young adult vampire films. There even appears to be the opportunity for a sequel or two with the knowledge of how many other bloodsuckers there are out there. Based on the strengths of this film alone, there’d be no harm in that at all.
JD GILLAM
If you enjoyed our review and want to watch We Are the Night, please consider clicking through to our Amazon Affiliate links. If you do you’ll help keep the This Is Horror ship afloat with some very welcome remuneration.
