Night Junkies

Gets so many points across metaphorically without shouting them out, for 70% of the time its a vampire revenge movie, for the rest its a love story and all the time it's a story about addiction of any kind. To my mind it's pure genius. I haven't heard of this director before, but I will be looking for anything in the future and anything including shorts in the past. I cannot believe this movie is not being hyped by the studio, other than the sex/stripper scenes it's not too strong. The cinematography while stealing from other directors, is timed well, placed well and gives the movie the look it is aiming for. If you see a film about vampires and you smoke, drink too much or do too much Peruvian Marching powder, then this is a movie that shows you what you are.

I'm not saying this is a bad flick, but if you miss this you haven't missed a thing. Jude Law's "Immortal" is far better and far more interesting to look at. Abel Ferrara made "The Addiction" in 1995, which seems to have "inspired" this one. So non Bram Stoker - Hammer Horror vampires are hardly an original concept. It is a brutal, ugly movie made up with stock characters: the hooker with a heart of gold, the unwilling blood addict, the psycho, punk kids, and totally non present police. I mean there is a crime wave of hookers being brutally murdered ala Jack the Ripper, yet not even a stock bobby trying to restore order.

Mining the seedy underworld of strip joints and prostitution in Dickens like modern London, which seems to be old dark alleys, is nothing we haven't seen before. Mining drug addiction with intelligent but routine observation about addiction that one can find at any 12 Step meeting or a hundred horrors of drug movie is hardly inspiring. Ditto for non traditional vampires. So there is nothing groundbreaking or original in this movie. I saw bits and pieces of previous films spliced into this one. So it is hard to pretend this is something brave and new that is going to knock your socks off. It is full off some really brutal violence, though nothing exceptional by today's standards and the sexuality is there and is probably the only redeeming feature of the flick, Tarantino like dialog is routine too these days. Just cut and paste some lines in MS Word and viola! This is an indy movie as far as improvisation, location shots and low budgets go, but at heart it is a cheap exploitation flick with plenty of brutal violence, psycho behavior and some soft core sex thrown in to pander to sophistos by glossing it over with a patina of some intelligent dialog. In my book, if you shoot for some intelligent and arty effect but end up being mainly ugly, common, derivative and brutal, then you are better off just watching some mindless Alien tear them apart type flick or some cheesy Hammer high Goth vampire flick cause at least you be getting an honest product.

Set in the winding streets and dark alleyways of riverside London, the story centers on Ruby and Vincent. Ruby works as a lap dancer whose "pimp" is intent on promoting her as a call girl. In a dark alleyway Vincent was 'turned' by a prostitute, and after weeks of battling with his condition, he has finally give in to his addiction: blood.

Vincent and Ruby meet through a chance encounter in a London café and fall in love during one special night. Vincent tries to feed on Ruby to satisfy his addiction which goes against his heart. Ruby escapes, but has now been 'turned' and has also become a vampire. Ruby has come from a very dark past, and has always had to be a fighter. Her father was a heroin addict who killed himself in the next room when she was a little girl. After she has turned into a vampire, she keeps getting creepy flashbacks about him. Unsure of what is happening to her, she returns to a remorseful Vincent who convinces her to stay and work things out. Together hey try to go 'cold turkey' on their blood addiction. Ruby's previous 'owners' want their star girl back and Matt, a man from her recent past, seeks her out.

Made for under $100,000, the production value is exceptionally good. Since the movie was low budget, you might expect acting typical for alow budget movie, but surprisingly the actors did a really good job. I especially liked Giles Alderson as Vincent. Lawrence Pearce also found some beautiful women to play the strippers. They are some of the hottest women I've seen in a vampire flick, and yes, there's plenty of nudity. This movie has an addicting sexiness that grabs you from the start. In fact, this movie has a sexiness that most vampire movies forget to include.

The writing is very Tarantino-esquire and his influence is obvious as well. Not that this is a bad thing, some of the conversations are fantastic and this movie offers some decent quote-ables. We also get some really great scenes, for instance, after Ruby turns, she is involved in a dominatrix fantasy with a John. He's bound, naked and bending over. She then grabs a strap-on dildo and is about to apply it when she faints from the changes that she's going through.

This movie seems very misogynistic at times. There are several scenes where women are beaten. One woman is beaten to death by a man who then proceeds to lick the blood off of her face.

The action scenes were decent, but there could have been more of them and there wasn't too much gore, but vampire movies shouldn't have all that much. There is, however, an ample amount of blood that is used very nicely. The way this movie was made, it's almost hard to tell that it's low budget.

What sets this movie apart from other vampire movies is the vampires themselves. They are portrayed as real people, but just have been dealt a "bad hand." They have no supernatural powers except for some enhanced senses and there was no evidence of them being stronger than an ordinary human. The vampires in this movie are junkies. Their addiction is blood, and when Ruby is sitting in a hotel room trying to quit "cold turkey" she was going through withdrawal. This reminded me a bit of "Trainspotting".

The bites are also different from typical vampires. Instead of the two marks on the neck, we are shown a full human bite mark. The standard weaknesses aren't in play either. They are not immortal. Holy water and garlic don't work, although sunlight causes their skin to crisp up. It seems the best way to kill them is by a stake through the heart, a bullet in the head, or by draining all of their blood. Of course any ordinary human would die with these methods as well.

While this was very good, there is some bad but not much. The only bad I can think of is that it's not as graphic as I would have liked and the story moves very slowly and plays out as a horror/drama.

This is Lawrence Pearce's first film and it's done very well. Like I said, it runs a bit slow and it's more dramatic than action-packed, but if you like vampire movies that are out of the norm, you may enjoy this movie.

Even though the movie moved really slow and more action would have been very welcome, I'm going to recommend this.

Have you ever wanted to just sit down and watch a great vampire film? Yea well if you are looking for one you won't find one until you go way back to probably Near Dark. I am always hesitant when it comes to watching vampire films. Especially low budget vampire flicks. I have seen so many failed attempts at the sub genre that I really gave up on it. But Lawrence Pearce has come to the rescue with what I feel is the best Vampire flick I have seen since Near Dark hit the screen in 1987.

Night Junkies begins in a seedy strip joint in London where prostitution is heavily endorsed. Unfortunately its hottest ticket in town, Ruby, is not going for it. So her "pimps" are trying their best to make her "rethink" her situation. While Ruby is constantly under stress on the other side of town is Vincent. A low key guy with a nasty addiction, blood. He only appears at night and if he doesn't get his fix every night you don't want to be near the guy. Slowly you begin to see he is not the only one with this need to feed. Slowly Pearce brings you into Vincents world and shows you what life is like for a vampire on the streets of the seedy underbelly of London.

Before we know it Ruby and Vincent have a chance encounter at a café and they strike up a conversation. What was supposed to be a one night stand turns into a complete disaster when things head south.. WAY south. No one is safe as Ruby's pimps want her back and working. Vincent soon realizes that he has to do something and fast.

Night Junkies at the very core is a love story told against the wonderful backdrop of London. What is best about this film is that you could completely take away the vampire slant and just inject any kind of drug into the story and it would play perfectly. But with the horror slant it works fantastic for us horror fans. Not only is this movie pretty violent but it also has a healthy dose of T&A from the lovely Lauren Adams. This woman is truly a goddess and I hope she pursues her career further because I would love to see much more of her in the future. Her role in this particular film was much to small.

I would not be surprised if we saw this movie play with the After Dark Horrorfest '07. It was brilliantly crafted and handled very well on a meager budget. Its not as low budget as some movies we review on this site but this movie was made for less then what some Hollywood movies use for catering. But the best thing is it doesn't show. Night Junkies could play in a theater near you and you wouldn't know the difference between it and the million dollar trash that Hollywood will pump out.

To every single fan that has been dying for a great vampire flick, the wait is over. Lawrence Pearce has delivered a fantastic take on the vampire affliction that truly rocks. With its amazing locations, fantastic performances and not to mention a great looking cast this is one flick you don't want to miss out on.

What a piece of trash. How anyone can call this piece of filth good or even mediocre is beyond me. Those who posted and stated such superlatives as "excellent" "Addictive" "Great", I ask this, did we watch the same movie? The one set in the London sex trade? The writing, directing and acting were all amateurish,. I did not care for a single character and ended up not watching the whole movie. The lead actress, was definitely bargain basement. Given that there was a budget, albeit a small one, it would make sense that a quality actor could have been hired. This obviously wasn't the case, which goes to show how bad your script was. The fact that this film was enjoyed by anyone and got distribution is a testament to how screwed up show biz is and doesn't say a whole lot about us as an audience. I would rather pluck out my toenails.

To the filmmakers: If you take yourself seriously as an artist, you will undoubtedly seek honest feedback of your work at some time in your life. Having your friends/colleagues write rave reviews of something that is not only bad, but harmful, is like a doctor stating you are healthy when you actually have cancer. Why did you make this film, what were you trying to say? I sincerely hope that you see the folly of your ways and strive to be better.