I was surprised to learn this film was set in the eighties. The book it's based on was written then and they decided to set it at the same time rather than updating it. The way they portray the era is evident when you know it but extremely subtle and could easily be viewed as a contemporary film.
The film starts off edging towards the understated and disturbing. It's a relatively quiet film, focusing on the life of the main character and the nature of another character's vampirism.
This is not a lost in the woods type horror film like I thought it would be, all about survival drama like so many other horror films. Instead it's set in an urban environment as is much more about supernatural influence on eeveryday life that high drama and action. I'm not a particularly great fan of vampire films, not that I'm prejudiced against the genre but simply because of what it's produced. I haven't seen a vampire story like this one before and it's a better film for it. I've never seen one that focused on children before.
There's nothing uptight or exclusive about it's focus on young characters, adult are not included as mere footnotes. The fact that it's a continental film definitely adds something to it and gives it a sense of distinctiveness.
Although it doesn't focus on primarily being exciting I would never call it boring, eventful scenes are simply not dressed up like they would be in an American film. Instead fact of the characters' existence and their relationships to eachother in all forms take precedence.
In all it's a good alternative to 'Hollywood' supernatural films.
