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Released by: Vicious Circle Films
Released on: 8/2/2011
Director: Faye Jackson
Cast: Constantin Barbulescu, Camelia Maxim, Catalin Paraschiv
Year: 2009
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The Movie:
Vlad (Catalin Paraschiv) returns to his birthplace, a small Romanian village, to discover something is amiss. Weird real-estate deals, people with little money having nice things, and Constantin Tirescu (Constantin Barbulescu), the rich man in town, seems to have an unhealthy appetite. His wife Ileana (Roxanna Guttmann) also seems to be able to put away the food in staggering quantities. Oh and weird boils start to appear on the townsfolk, including Vlad.
The dropout-med-student-turned-burger-joint-worker can't seem to leave things be, and sticks his nose into the town's deeds. He uncovers a conspiracy involving murder, which has led to vampires (strigoi) making a place for themselves amongst the village people. Vlad does not believe in strigoi, and with the help of a local policeman the truth becomes clearer, and that truth starts to point Vlad in the direction towards people closest to him.
Strigoi has a lot of great things going for it. Filmed in Romania, the setting is fittingly depressing at times but always gives the viewer something to look at, as it has nice cinematography. The characters are quirky enough to be interesting, but not so quirky as to seem forced and annoying. The acting is excellent, utilizing an all-Romanian cast speaking English. The story is refreshingly different, and the way vampires are portrayed is very not in line with traditional vampire movies. Missing is a gaggle of pretty-boy emo sissies with pouty red lips. Missing is CGI. Present is a good amount of gore. The opening scene has a pretty darned effective shovel to the back of the head gag and watch for a graveside autopsy…of sorts.
But the movie is incredibly slow. Although the characters are really interesting and the film delivers some good scenes, the story plays out at such a meticulous pace that it's sleep inducing. At an hour and 45 minutes it feels that last half an hour at work. It just won't end. And it's really a shame because the director makes a really nice looking movie. Maybe with some trimming down this could be a much better movie but, as it stands its not easy to get through.
Video/Audio/Extras:
The movie has a ratio of 1.85:1, even through the box copy says “4:3 anamorphic†(does that even exist?). As mentioned earlier, the cinematography is nice in this movie and the DVD gives it a solid representation. Nice colors, consistent black levels, and nice detail throughout. There are no issues to report like pixelation, or aliasing. The Dolby 5.1 stereo track is fine, with no problems to mention by way of authoring. The one thing about Strigoi though, is the accents sometimes make things difficult to pick up on. That's fine when you have a subtitle track, but this one doesn't. The balance sounds correct, and when music plays is when the 5.1 really comes into play. Otherwise it's mostly front-end action. It's a subdued movie and doesn't rely on much for sound effects.
For extras, there's a 12-minute short called “Lump†by the same director as the feature. It's pretty good actually. It's a bit disturbing, but in the right way. A woman keeps having tumors removed from her breasts but never gets to actually talk to the doctor. They just keep performing surgery on her. Also included is a pretty useless photo gallery, which is nothing more than screen shots from the movie. A trailer is included, which makes the movie look a lot more energetic than it is, plus some trailers for other movies from the DVD label.
The Final Word:
This different take on the vampire mythos sprinkled with some political commentary has a lot in its corner, but squanders it by being a slow, slow movie. Painfully slow. It's tough to say "Yeah snag this one up." Instead you might want to check it out on some streaming service first.
