Strigoi (2009)

Pretty Good

If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

Blistering performances.

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

Only ten COMMENTS so far but I think Gavin and Bradlee got it right: This is a tongue-in-cheek adventure using a legendary genre with contemporary setting and language but mining some of the funniest deadpan humor ever! Truly the plot and it's background are interesting enough but I found myself laughing out loud at the characters and dialog. Such is never stand-alone comedy but situational; e.g.:Vlad: "Were you drinking my blood?" Grandfather, "It's okay." Vlad: "No it isn't! Were you drinking my blood?" Grandfather, "It's okay."Vlad:"NO IT IS NOT OKAY!" Much humor happens just in mere pauses and blank stares. Other hilarity results from the contrast between the horrific legend and storyline competing with the mundane; e.g., on more than one occasion we are engrossed in a character's suspicious, furtive actions only to discover he is looking for cigarettes. Similar, however frightening are the scenes involving the insatiable appetites of the undead, I LOVE LUCY comes to mind in mother's race to serve more food before herself becoming the meal! You may have a hard time getting a grip on how to read STRIGOI. Once you do it's an hysterical ride!

It is well written, well directed, and well acted.This isn't a knee slapper. It isn't an in your face "Boo!" fest. It doesn't make your skin crawl like a Hannibal Lector. It isn't a Sherlock Holmes mystery.But its wry and amusing. There are scenes so odd in light of the circumstances that they stand out as surreal and yet right for some reason. The whole movie revolves around getting to the bottom of why or what this Strigoi vampire nonsense is all about.While set in Romania the language is English and well spoken. As a native English speaker it is easy to follow along while still getting the sense of being in a foreign world -- a place where the undead still have their wrongful place in the world.

When the villagers killed Constantin Tirescu, they thought it was justice. Vlad Cozma thinks it was murder. Now Constantin thinks pickles might go nice with blood.Dennis Harvey at Variety called it "drolly funny if a tad long-winded". I think he is right on both points. Second one first -- coming in around 104 minutes, I think shaving ten minutes off would help the pacing and get more of an audience. Not saying it drags, but it could be faster.First point second, it is quite funny, in an offbeat way. Romanians doing a conga line to "Spirit in the Sky", old men asking if Italy has nice pizza (it does, and ice cream, too). And weird comments like a character being "too ***** to stick his finger up my ***." The fast food nightmare scene was excellent, too, both funny and sickening at the same time.Faye Jackson says, "Romanian is a language that uses a lot of word play and slang and my Romanian simply isn't good enough to write dialogue that sounds like Romanian as it's spoken. So I had to write it in English." She has been asked why it was not in Romanian since they filmed it there and it starred Romanians. Perhaps the right thing to do would be to get a new director, but since Jackson did so well, that seems unnecessary in hindsight.The gore is commendable, very good and not too gross for a horror film, especially the scene with the police officer. I am not entirely clear why the cop has born without ribs, though. (I suppose he might have been born with ribs and had them removed later, but it is still weird.) I am waiting to see what Faye Jackson does next. The director's next project is "sort of Dirty Pretty Things meets the A Team, except nothing like that at all". Wow. Yep, wow.

Unfortunately this is a hard to find movie, but trust me if u ever get a chance you'll certainly enjoy it!The plot starts where our hero young doctor returns from his internship in Italy to his in-the-middle-of-nowhere village. He finds that a kind of weird old man has been dead. In Romanian tradition when someone dies his friends must stay up with the dead body for three full days, just to make sure that nothing goes out of the way...! He sees five villagers staying up and drinking next to its coffin. But, they hardly liked the dead man. And this is where all creepiness starts taking place...Through out the film everyone seems emotionless, they all talk slowly, amazing things happen and they act like it's everyday routine. This bizarre non linear beat of the movie is what makes it creepy and kind of disturbing. To add to all this bizarre world comes moments of dancing to Bregovic music...!! If you ever been to Eastern Europe you do get that weird feeling as if everything is heavier than it should be and that people do have this distinct- chilly- unemotional tone in their voice. It always creep me out, and that's exactly what I got from this film. Certainly a gem, certainly out of the ordinary and a great idea to watch an "original" Romanian take on vampires. If u get a chance, do watch it!