A Place Among the Dead

I was able to see an advanced screening of Juliet Landau's new film A Place Among the Dead. It's unsettling, intense, mind-bending, and disturbing on multiple levels...which is exactly what makes it work so well as an emotionally charged psychological thriller.

Within seconds, A Place Among the Dead captures viewers with an almost hypnotic hook that penetrates deep into the psyche of anyone whose ever felt or been told they are "less than." The technique enables the viewer to become emotionally entrenched within the film's first couple of minutes.

While it's billed as a "vampire film," A Place Among the Dead is much deeper than a story about vampires. Instead, it's an immersive look at narcissism, the concept of evil, and the tendency to blur the line of fact versus fiction through the course of our own inner narrative.

Juliet and crew blur their own lines between fact and fiction with scripted "interviews" from celebrities from within the vampire mythos, a compelling "reality TV/real crime" storyline, peppered with the occasional use of real names and relationships. The creative decisions to weave fantasy and reality together this way can be unsettling, evoking emotions akin to learning something you held as an indisputable truth is, in fact, completely fabricated.

As a person who typically avoids horror films and most thrillers, I had reservations about watching this film...doing so in a well lit room in the middle of the day. But A Place Among the Dead isn't "scary" so much as it is intensely disturbing in a thought provoking way. I'm glad I had the opportunity to watch it and by taking a chance on this film, I found myself becoming more aware of the core internal messages that I send myself each day.

I watched the incredibly powerful worldwide premiere of "A Place Among The Dead." It's Juliet Landau's directorial debut. Expect MANY more amazing films from this multi-talented woman. WOW WOW WOW.

This film expertly uses the vampire genre to explore the repercussions of growing up under the sway of narcissism and evil. It is a revealing and often terrifying meld of fact, fiction and the fantastical. If you have ever suffered the under the control of a narcissist this film is a must see. I have seen it 4 times and each viewing has revealed more and more layers it is a powerful piece of film making.

I found about this film from an interview by narcissistic personality disorder expert Dr. Ramani Durvasula with Landau and her husband in which they discussed how Landau's parents, the actors Martin Landau and Barbara Bain, were toxic narcissists. I felt the usual shock the general public feels when finding out famous people we thought were all right really aren't, and wanted to hear her story.

I got it, all right. Landau packs a lot into 75 minutes, weaving strands of autobiography, celebrity interviews, and Hollywood storytelling in an entertaining and aesthetically pleasing Henry Jaglomesque manner. The daughter of the man who won an Oscar for playing Bela Lugosi in "Ed Wood," and who herself gave a memorable performance in that film as a vulnerable young starlet, and went on to famously play a vampire in the "Buffy" franchise, is aware of the metaness of her life and career, and lets us in on the details, along the way proving herself an adept at low-budget, high concept thrillermaking herself.

Loosely built around the conceit that Landau and her husband are making a documentary about a vampire preying on young Goth women, the film shuffles though different layers of reality and fantasy, slipping in homages to iconic horrors from "Buffy" to "The Blair Witch Project" while tenderly addressing the similarities between Landau's own private trauma and those of her fans. The gory details of what Martin and Barbara did to Landau aren't dwelt on, but it's clear by the film's climax (in which Landau appears to be channelling the tormented superhero Jessica Jones) that they are the vampires their daughter is aiming to exorcise. And seeing their famous faces flashed onscreen alongside whispered cruel words, representing Landau's memories, is genuinely shocking. I would place this alongside "Mommie Dearest" and Maria Riva's memoir about her mother Marlene Dietrich as a warning against assuming that being talented and famous equals being good.

I have never seen a film like this in my life - just incredible. I thought the way it tackled the subject of narcissism through the metaphor of vampires was just poetic. Juliet's performance was amazing, so much heart and depth - it was also incredibly brave of her open up about something so personal. I wish there were more real and honest films like this out there. I have watched it three times now, every time I watch I notice something new, and every time I am left in stunned tears.