Review for We Are The Night

Introduction

Long ago, when DVD Reviewer was young, we used to get allocated titles that were left over after we’d requested what interested us, and we had to review what we got regardless. After the regrettable Anthea Turner incident of 2006, that policy was revised into something a lot more equitable. We now review what interests us. But, that doesn’t stop PR companies from sending random discs out in the hope that they’ll garner a review or two. On occasion, such discs can be a useful escape from our own insular interests. I do occasionally tire of anime, and want to sample something different, tantalise and freshen up my viewing palate. Recently it seems that all I’ve been reviewing is anime about vampires, so I picked up the first unsolicited disc on the random pile and gave it a spin. We Are The Night is a vampire movie... Figures!


It’s not the typical vampire movie though. Lena is a street thief that picks the wrong pocket, and winds up attracting the attention of cop Tom. While she manages to evade his clutches, she’s not so lucky when she goes clubbing, and attracts the attention of an elegant, timeless blonde woman named Louisa. Louisa sees something in Lena’s eyes that she’s been searching for, something that earns Lena a bite on the neck. Like it or not, she’s now part of a new sisterhood, and Louisa introduces her to just what she and her associates Nora and Charlotte are capable of. More to the point Lena can do these things too. Never being able to go out in daylight again is a bit of a downer, although not as much as the craving for human blood. But it turns out that being a creature of the night has even more downsides. Also, the trail of corpses that Louisa and her friends leave behind soon attracts the attention of the police, and Tom in particular.

Picture

We Are The Night gets a solid 2.35:1 anamorphic transfer on this DVD disc. Detail levels are good, the image is clear and sharp throughout, and its clarity isn’t diminished in the darker scenes, important in a movie about vampires. The cinematography is stylish and cool without detracting from the story, and the special effects come across well. The only nitpick would be the slight aliasing and shimmer on fine detail, usually on distant rooftops in cityscape panorama shots. A Blu-ray would have been better, and apparently there is an HD release in France, with English dub, but without English subtitles. This DVD is the next best thing though.

Sound

You have the option of the original German audio with English subs, and an English dub, both in DD 5.1 Surround form. I didn’t even sample the dub, sticking with the original language. The surround is excellent, making full use of the soundstage to offer ambience, set a mood, and deliver some brilliant action set pieces. We Are The Night also has a pulse pounding soundtrack, with some excellent pop music choices interspersed with a strong music score. The subtitles are timed accurately and are free of error.

Extras

The disc autoplays with trailers for Apartment 143, Red Lights, and Sinister, and presents the film with an animated menu.

The film gets a 24 minute long making of documentary, 12 minutes worth of deleted scenes (9 in total, with some lengthy gaps between them), 2 alternate endings, a 19 minute Video Diary chronicling the shoot, and a 6-minute Behind the VFX featurette, focussing on the digital effects. It’s a useful collection of extra features, and complements the film well.

Conclusion

You never know what to expect from the random review disc, and it’s often a matter of pot luck if you get something good, or a stinker. With the prevalence of the vampire in modern entertainment, not only in anime, but on television and in feature films as well, I really didn’t expect much from We Are The Night. But with this disc, I feel as if I have struck gold. Germany isn’t exactly well known for vampire movies, despite starting the whole thing off with Nosferatu almost a hundred years ago, but We Are The Night is the most fun I’ve had with a vampire movie since Blade. It’s another reinvention of the vampire myth, but one that builds on classic tropes, rather than shaping it in its own image. It’s a horror action movie, but one with heart, and great characterisation. Like most modern movies, I wind up relating it to films I’ve seen before, and there are hints of Highlander in its tone, Terminator in its action, and the classic eighties Vamp in its wit. It also establishes its own style and has a palpable sexiness which is very appealing.


It’s set in a world where the only vampires are women, and only those with the gift can be turned... Everyone else is lunch. It’s an exploration of what a person would do with such immortality and freed of freed of morality. After all, if you have to drink human blood to survive, simple things like ethics cease to matter. With all the time in the world, and nothing to hold on to, life becomes an endless hedonistic jaunt through the world’s nightlife, seeking thrill after thrill to keep on feeling. That’s where we meet the vampire Louisa and her companions Charlotte and Nora. From the first it becomes apparent that Louisa is looking for something in her prey beyond just blood, and she finds it when she encounters street thief Lena.


Lena is one of the few with the gift, and Louisa turns her without even asking. Lena has to take a crash course in being a vampire, and gets to experience the rush of her new abilities. But the more she spends time with the others, the more she learns of what they have lost, and ironically what they long most for. Creatures of the night, instinctively drawn to hunting and drinking blood, they chase after their lost humanity, even as they hold themselves superior to humans. The whole reason Louisa turned Lena, and indeed the others is that she needs companionship, people that won’t grow old and die, and her attraction to Lena goes beyond obsession.


Charlotte on the other hand faces a loneliness even more personal, coupled with an ennui that leaves her an outsider even within the group. Nora is more recently turned into a vampire, and she’s still having trouble holding onto her humanity in the face of her new, lethal instincts. It’s very much like a drug, with an initial high and excitement, followed by a downer when the euphoria wears off, and for Lena, who still has her humanity mostly intact, it’s a harsh introduction to this world.


We Are The Night is sexy, stylish and cool, with some great visuals and a thumping soundtrack. It’s an action packed and stylish thriller, with an engaging story and heart-pounding pace. Best of all its characterisations are strong, and the way that it depicts this world is thoughtful and well-realised. If you like your vampires in the classic vein (pun intended), but given a modern slick action movie make-over then you really need to see this film. If that isn’t enough incentive, I can also tell you that it isn’t Twilight.