Night Junkies

In London, two vampires attempt break their addiction to blood by going cold turkey.

Night Junkies is another entry based around the vampirism as addiction metaphor. Previous (and more successful) films in this vein include Larry Fessenden’s Habit, and Abel Ferrara’s aptly titled The Addiction. Unfortunately, writer/director Lawrence Pearce’s attempt fails as both a film about addiction, and a film about vampires.

As a film about addiction, Night Junkies is much too pretty. The lead, played by Giles Alderson is much too clean cut, with gelled hair and put-together outfits, to be a believable junkie. There’s no glimmer of desperation in his eyes, or hint of paranoia. Further, aside from what looks like a bad hangover, Pearce fails to give the viewer any sense of what real withdrawal feels like. In the post Trainspotting and Requiem for a Dream world, Night Junkies just doesn’t cut it.

As a vampire movie, Night Junkies fails too. In playing up his addiction metaphor, Pearce drops perhaps the most important part of the vampire mythos, eternal life. Without it, the characters are more leeches than vampires.

Night Junkies is Pearce’s first film, and it shows. While he seems to have a knack for eliciting good performances (the acting is surprisingly good), he relies too much on exposition, with his characters telling a lot of things he should be showing.

In the end, some good performances can’t compensate for a weak script and novice director.