2021, Peter Thorwarth (If It Don't Fit Use a Bigger Hammer) -- Netflix
This German movie begins with a mother & son entering an airport, her wearing a very obvious wig. We see her in the terminal washrooms injecting herself with something, while her son amuses himself outside, talking to an obviously middle-eastern man. This is movie cue for "there will be a hijacking and the middle-eastern man will be blamed". To be honest, I knew exactly how the movie was going to play out, as the trailer gave everything away, and I mean everything. Plane is hijacked, Wig Mom gets shot, later waking up with scary eyes -- vampire! Vampire Mom proceeds to take out the terrorists, saves son. But not many passengers.
Despite the facetious nature of the previous paragraph, I actually rather enjoyed this flick. It took some notes from later vampire fiction, where the exponential growth of vampires becomes the greater danger than the terrorists hijacking the plane. Vampire Mom is constantly fighting her nature, one she kept in check with the drugs she was injecting, but has to let the beast free to protect her son, especially from one of the terrorists who embraces the change. While nothing was particularly novel nor innovative, it was a strong, tense movie with some solid performances, and a decent addition to the genre. But really, only for Vampire Girls and their BFs.
Did you go from "Vampire guy" to "Zombie zombie" at some point?
ReplyDeleteI saw the trailer for this and thought it looked entertaining, but I haven't gotten to it precisely because it seems the trailer kind of tells the whole story. It seems trailers by and large need to tell most of the story to get people interested, rather than be "teasers" or "previews". Like how great would it have been if they just sold the short story of a woman and son taking a plane, it getting hijacked and, like "oh shit there's something wrong with her...but what?"
I know it's the journey of storytelling that matters more than knowing what will happen, but its so rare to be surprised or not anticipate everything that will happen in a movie.
Agreed. I am always much more pleased when I am pleasantly surprised that the movie is much more than the trailer sold me. But this is one of those B movies sold to a streaming service, where they fear "nobody will watch another hijack movie, especially a GERMAN one" so they tell us the "twist" up front, knowing full well vampire fans will just watch anyway.
ReplyDeleteYeah at some point, I just tapped out on the whole vampire schtick. As mentioned, Twilight and their sparkly ever-teens was enough. I was done. I do still enjoy the odd ducks, as I prefer my vampire to be a monster not a heart throb.