Shadowland

This film is somewhat enjoyable in that it avoids using too many clichés and tries to be different. It's quite successful at that. The film makes use of flashbacks at appropriate moments to unfold the past life of a female vampire. This helps the viewers understand that there's a human there somewhere underneath.

The film was quite successful at making me sympathize with her present life, although it was hard to sympathize with her past life, which is what we see in the flashbacks. One might think, well, she was an unruly daughter to her father and she just got what she deserved and was doomed to carry the pain of living the rest of her life as a vampire.

When I was watching this film, I didn't really feel like I was watching a vampire film. This was different. It was like following the story of a beggar trying to get herself some food and clothes and escaping from the police except that she had uncanny powers.

This film IS entertaining, but at times I felt it was too boring to watch specially because there aren't many main characters involved in the film other than a vampire girl wandering in the streets, an uninteresting guy trying to catch her and stupid police officers who don't even know how to use guns.

If you are interested in watching how a beggar desperately tries to survive on the streets, this is a perfect movie to see, otherwise keep your distance.

This off-beat vampire film is a superior presentation. In 1897, our blonde, ill-fated damsel is put to death as a vampire. A century and more later she is accidentally resurrected by a workman, part of a crew who are doing some work for the local church. She crawls out of her grave not only covered in mud and bloodied from her execution but struck dumb (initially) and with no memory of her misfortune, nor it appears of her previous life, and of course no idea how long she has been interred.

Although a vampire, she walks in the sunlight, and is, as you would be if you hadn't eaten for 111 years, ravenously hungry. As slowly she adapts to traffic, aircraft, and not least, biros, things aren't looking at all bad for her. She scavenges some clothes aided by an ability to move only slightly less quickly than the Flash, and seeks out her former residence. She might have adapted to the 21st Century perhaps even without reverting to type, but unfortunately there is a vampire hunter in close pursuit who wants to save her soul in classical fashion.

That is as much as you need to know apart from the film having a decent soundtrack; suffice it to say that even allowing for the development of the film-makers' craft, Bela Lugosi comes a poor second to the feisty Caitlin McIntosh.

Although this movie kept me entertained to a level in which i wanted to see how far they would take it, it's not something i would consider watching again.

The acting was weak at best but not so much that you couldn't watch it or turn away in disgust since it did have its moments, this will never win any awards but it is entertaining.

The portrayal of vampires was indeed its weakest part considering what fiction dictates to be a correct form for vampires, you shall see what i mean if you decide to watch it, and although my rating is low, the story is sound and is defiantly worth a one time watch.

Well I found "Shadowland" to be a rather enjoyable movie on one hand, but on the other hand there was just something crucial missing from it to make it great.

The storyline was good enough, although you don't really get any chance or any real deep insight as to whom the characters are, and they come off as rather soulless, shallow characters, which is a shame. The story does, however, delve a bit into the background of Laura (played by Caitlin McIntosh), but it is nowhere near any point as being where it really establishes any real depth to her character. And as for the mysterious hunter Julian (played by Jason Contini), then we are given even less insight to his story and background.

So for some odd reason, the movie is basically about an hour and forty minutes of watching a vampire lady trying to track back to her familiar places in the time where she was from, while a hunter is trying to track her down. This is basically the essential core of the movie and the entire feature concept. Sort of lacking depth and levels in which the audience can get immersed.

The acting was actually good enough for a movie of this budget. And I personally do think that the people hired for the various roles were doing quite alright, and was at no point amateurish and pathetic at acting as you tend to experience in movies of this kind. So thumbs up on that aspect at least.

"Shadowland" doesn't make use of a lot of special effects, nor does it make a lot of use of CGI. The little that was used was used in moderation and worked out well enough to illustrate the points trying to be achieved. However, there was one thing that was really sort of anti-climatic; it was when Laura was screaming in the church and the windows had to be blown out. It looked like a small rock was just randomly tossed through the windows, taking out a small fragment of the glass only. It was hilarious, and it didn't work out on any level at all.

Oddly enough, there is just something about "Shadowland" that makes you keep watching right up to the very end. There is some kind of strange lure to the movie, despite it not really having much aspect or depth. So the director did do something right after all.

For a vampire movie, then "Shadowland" was somewhat of a rather tame experience. And personally, I didn't fully grasp the idea of having an extra set of fangs, and especially not have them placed where they were. It made the vampire look sort of retarded in a way. Kind of hard to take it serious when the mouth was widened by an extra set of fangs, and it would cause them to speak with an impediment.

"Shadowland" is a movie that doesn't offer much on most levels, but strangely enough manages to keep you lured in for the entire length of the feature. And because of this, I have to settle on giving "Shadowland" a 5/10 rating.

Sometimes an actor is cast and maybe their voice is not entirely ... maybe it doesn't fit or maybe it is better to leave them without anything to say. Not sure if it is a gimmick here or if the lead actress was not considered good enough an actress to have a talking part .. whatever the case, she is looking good .. not just for a Vampire.

Having said that, the movie and its pace are really something you have to get used to. B-movie if you are being nice and if you are into that. The ending is weird too ... not sure if I would consider it in a good sense.