
In “The Radleys”, the novel by Matt Haig transposes to a medium of a half-hearted vampire horror comedy that hardly knows its own identity. British film production features Damian Lewis and Kelly Macdonald in their roles as the blood-thirsty Peter and Helen Radley, alcoholic parents who have spent most of their life in suburbia and know how to conceal their true nature as well as their kids’ developing potential as vampires for a while.
When their teenage daughter Clara (Bo Bragason) encounters herself for the first time this is a somewhat confused scene of reversed instances of sexual assault the couple turns to Peter’s ‘active’ vampire identical twin brother Will (who is portrayed by Damian Lewis). Characters often come across the term and recently invented the term “a family disease”, used to refer to vampirism, they use the phrase ‘family disease’ and say that gluttony runs in their family resulting in addiction amplified metaphors. Meanwhile, Rowan (Harry Baxendale), the couple has a gay son, has an unassuming attraction for his neighboring handsome Evan (Jay Lycurgo), creating another smokescreen double entendre about covert femininities only to be revealed later when vampires come out of the closet like queer folk. But as of now, at least, such ambiguous references are just about the only clearly defined source of emotion in the movie.
The movie begins simply visually with “The Radleys” and this stale quality, which sometimes comes across as a flatness, never develops. The camera and editing barely succeed in keeping pace with the genuinely exciting music of Keefus Ciancia’s score, and this creates a divide between the image and the sound almost right from the start, which can be increasingly difficult to ignore, especially in light of the film’s dialogue. For example, Rowan’s voiceover explains that neighbors comment on Clara being very white, yet she does not appear much different than other white actresses in the film.
There seem to be so many of them that one full episode may be hardly enough. Evan’s father Jared (Shaun Parkes) is suspicious that the Radleys are vampires which reasons are not clear because the family has taken protective measures to conceal their identity. The scattered use of vampire culture in the film confuses me even more because it includes some elements already used (mind control, invitations to cross the threshold, dislike of garlic) while other ones (not seeing their reflection, bursting into flames when exposed to the sun) are just ignored, but does not outline its boundaries in any significant way, as if expecting the viewers to know how the filmic vampires work in the first place. The above-mentioned concepts are introduced sequentially but are only revealed at the point at which they can be used, which leads to hit-and-run references and weak jokes rather than developed plot threads.
All the actors work quite hard but the script does not do them justice. Lewis manages to make his two characters a stern, sophisticated psychologist and a relaxed and outgoing twin brother sufficiently different from one another. Of the entire cast, only Macdonald appears to have quite appreciated the lower level of the addiction-related motif, and his performance is performed in a chaotic and almost anarchic way. But there are too many potential explosive escapes that fail to materialize, leaving her character rather stagnant.
‘The Radleys’ proves to be nothing but a bear hug from your loving grandmother. Absolutely no scare advantage, the story hardly seems to stretch beyond the four walls of the core household, and the comedy factor is limited to Lewis’ stylized reaction shots whenever Peter sees blood. Still, with the rest of the movie looking as bland as it has so far, one wonders if that was the intention. A movie that is clouded by typical attributes of the genre does not include the most fundamental basics of the genre: mischief and excitement, and even more frequently than often, it totally avoids all the subplots it succeeds in creating. Vampirism for the characters, both adults who are getting out of control, and adolescents discovering themselves, seem to be giving definitions to that word only as it suits them. The portions of the movie that do have any potential barely get a chance to breathe.
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