Iwai Shunji's "Vampire" premieres at Sundance, doesn't wow critics but clips reveal a moody film

by Chris MaGee

A film that we've been eagerly awaiting for a few months now is Iwai Shunji's English- language feature "Vampire" starring Kevin Zeggers as an introverted bloodsucker who preys on suicidal women portrayed by Keisha Castle Hughes, Amanda Plummer and Adelaide Clemens. Iwai, who had previously brought us such films as "All About Lily Chou-Chou" and "Hana and Alice" had been out of the spotlight for a few years, so many Japanese film fans got very excited to hear that a new feature from the director would be coming in 2011. There were a few among us, though, who were a little worried that the choice of subject matter was a bit of a case of bandwagon jumping, what with the huge success of the "Twilight" film series.

With the premiere of "Vampire" taking place at the recent Sundance Film Festival we finally get to see clips from this long-awaited project. You can check out one with Kevin Zegers vampire getting to drain the blood out of co-star Adelaide Clemens below and check out two more over at Wildgrounds. The Wildgrounds posting isn't all good news though. Apparently there are a number of critics who have called "Vampire" "Abundantly goofy, but atmospheric only in spots," (Variety) and "uneven and overlong" (Screen Daily). We'll reserve any kind of judgment until we got to see the film ourselves.