Review of Byzantium (2013) by Inga H — 14 Jun 2013

Great modern vampire film. A young woman, Clara and her daughter, Eleanor, keep moving from place to place as Clara can't seem to keep out of trouble. But we later find out both of them are vampires that are being hunted. The most enjoyable aspect of Byzantium is, like Let the Right One In before it, it feels like a normal coming-of-age drama/thriller where the main characters happen to be vampires. You have to feel for eternally 16 year old Eleanor as she begins an ultimately doomed relationship and Clara who feels she has to sell her body in order to pay for their survival.

The girls get taken in by a lonely man, Noel, who has just lost his mother who has left him her Hotel, named Byzantium. Thinking this could be the place for them to settle, at least for a while, Clara begins a relationship and also starts running a brothel within the hotel to bring in money but obviously things can't stay quiet/relatively normal for long, especially with Eleanor's seeming struggle with hiding her vampirism.

Byzantium is a fairly original, sometimes gory, always gripping, well acted vampire story that all vampire/horror fans should enjoy.