Quartile rating: 7/10 · 1 rating
Residents of a coastal town learn, with deadly consequences, the secret shared by the two mysterious women who have sought refuge at a local boarding house, the Byzantium.
Neil Jordan's vampire drama is elevated by two exceptional central performances — Saoirse Ronan and Gemma Arterton are both magnetic — and by stunning, moody cinematography that renders its coastal British setting as genuinely atmospheric and gothic. The feminist reframing of vampire mythology gives it some thematic distinctiveness, though the core narrative bones remain fairly familiar. The plotting meanders in its middle section and the ending feels somewhat abrupt and emotionally unsatisfying given the buildup, failing to fully pay off the emotional investment the film cultivates.