If your idea of a vampire movie was ruined by sparkly teen romances, “Byzantium” is the antidote. It’s the complete opposite of movies like “Twilight,” as fun as they are. It’s a moody, grown-up, gothic tale that almost nobody talks about. This 2012 film is streaming free on Tubi right now, and it comes from a director who knows the genre as well as anyone.
Directed by Neil Jordan, the Oscar winner behind “The Crying Game” and, more to the point, “Interview with the Vampire,” “Byzantium” is an adaptation of Moira Buffini’s stage play starring Saoirse Ronan and Gemma Arterton as its two leads,
It’s a slow, stylish, character-driven take on immortality rather than a jump-scare machine. Even better for Halloween hounds, it’s a mix of delectable bloodthirst with centuries of secrets to draw from. If you want a vampire story with some true sadness to it, this is a hidden gem absolutely worth seeking out since it’s available for the low, low price of free right now.
What is ‘Byzantium’ about?
Clara (Gemma Arterton) and Eleanor (Saoirse Ronan) are a mother and daughter who arrive, broke and on the run, in a seaside town. They take refuge in a guesthouse called Byzantium, which Clara turns into a brothel to keep them afloat. What the locals don’t realize is that the two women are vampires, and that they’ve been the same age for 200 years.
Eleanor, forever a teenager, is lonely and exhausted by a lifetime of secrecy, and she longs to tell someone the truth about what she is. When she befriends Frank (Caleb Landry Jones), a sweet young man who she finds is deathly ill, she finally starts to share her story.
But opening up is dangerous, because a brotherhood of ancient male vampires has been hunting Clara and Eleanor for years, furious that the two women ever joined their ranks at all. As their past closes in, the film unravels the centuries-old history that made them what they are and why they’re children of the night.
More than a horror movie, “Byzantium” is a story about women surviving in a world that keeps trying to control them. If that isn’t a fable that’s relevant to today’s age, I don’t know what is. But it’s also about the loneliness of carrying a secret no one can ever know. I
Immortality here isn’t glamorous, and instead it’s a heartbreaking burden that Jordan treats with sorrow. That sets it apart from some of the more lackadaisical stories about vampirism and gives you a reason to become more emotionally invested.
Saoirse Ronan, years before her string of Oscar nominations, is fantastic as an old soul trapped in a girl’s body, and Gemma Arterton is ferocious as her mother.
At just under two hours, “Byzantium” is a beautiful, bloody, deeply melancholy vampire film that deserves a far bigger cult than it has.
If you’ve been looking for the perfect flick to kick off Halloween proper without relying on the same movies over and over again, this is your sign to hop onto Tubi right now.
