VAMPIRE

US/Canada, 2011, 120 minutes, Colour.
Kevin Zegers, Keisha Castle Hughes, Rachel Leigh Cook, Kristian Kreuk, Amanda Plummer, Yu Aoi, Adelaide Clemens.
Directed by Iwai Shunji.

A generic title in a trend that has been very popular in cinema and on television.

Writer-director, Iwai Shunji, is Japanese and toys with the vampire conventions in an idiosyncratic way, incorporating them into stories of depressed and suicidal American teens.

That’s how it starts. High School biology teacher, Simon (Kevin Zegers), has a rendezvous with a young woman (Keisha Castle-Hughes? who appears for only 15 minutes) and proceeds to drain her of her blood. She dies. He drinks.

Needless to say, all is not normal in this part of the American Pacific North West. After all, it is Twilight territory. Simon’s mother (Amanda Plummer) has Alzheimers. He keeps her inside their apartment with a brace and helium balloons. A friendly police officer is impressed and takes Simon fishing along with his sister, Lucy (Rachel Leigh Cook) who proves to be a do-gooding intrusive nuisance.

In the meantime, there are some more suicidal youth, and a very unpleasant episode where a member of a club for horror-struck nerds acts out a violent rape which Simon denounces.
So, is Simon a serial-killer nicknamed the Vampire? In realistic terms, maybe. In terms of discussion about dreams and wish-fulfilment and whether you can die in your own dream, maybe, maybe not? Or is he just a would-be vampire?

1. Variations on the vampire theme? Audience interest? The dead, the Living Dead, the role of blood, killing of others? The suicide issue?

2. The real, the realistic style? The possibility of dreams – and the issue of people dying in their own dreams, not in the dreams of others? The touches of fantasy?

3. The West Pacific, the town, the warehouses, the schools, homes, streets, the forests? Realistic?

4. The score, low-key, the piano, the light orchestrations?

5. The title, literal, the name of the serial killer?

6. The Japanese writer-director, his perspective on death, on vampires?

7. The introduction to Jellyfish, her waiting in the rain, Simon arriving, their talk, his taking her computer, going in the car, the plan, the proposed deaths, the food, takeaway, Simon’s caution, not wanting to be seen? The warehouse, the set-up, the gear, the taking of the blood, painless, death? The disposal of the body?

8. Simon at school, teaching biology, butterflies, moulting, issues of life and death, their wishes? The students themselves, the exams, the suicidal girl, the noose on her test? Her talking with Simon, about to kill herself, hang herself, her not succeeding, going to hospital, the irony of Simon donating his blood, the blood test, the matter-of-factness of the nurse?

9. At home, his mother, Alzheimer’s, the helium balloon, keeping her strapped, unable to go out of the door?

10. The police, the questions, their interest in Simon? The young policeman, chatting, the helium balloons, friendship, the invitation to go fishing, Laura accompanying them? His mistaking her name for Lucy? Laura and her coming into the house, interfering, intruding, falling in love, treating Simon’s mother as her own mother, helping, meals, tidying, Simon’s room and the boundaries? Simon and his reaction, upset, her leaving, returning, the discovery of the freezer? The body?

11. Simon and the website, the contacts, meeting people, trying to get the computers, deleting the correspondence? The group in the van, the driver, the boys? The girl and her not wanting to die? The group gassed in the van? The girl not wanting to walk, surprised at the distance for walking, the episode of the leeches, Simon taking her blood, her taking his blood? Her home, the basement, the artwork, the set-up? His getting his gear, to take her blood, her not dying? His loving her or not?

12. Simon and the effect of his being the vampire, yet not a vampire? His mother, Laura, the classes?

13. His theory about suicide, the suicide gene, trying to find it, samples, saving lives, his explanation to the students?

14. Laura and the discovery, the police? Laura’s brother and his hostility towards Simon? The arrest?

15. The body in the freezer, the girl alive, past or present? The discussion about dreams? Finally seeing Simon as recovered? His wishful thinking about being a vampire? Would-be vampire? Or in his dreams?