Vampires is a Belgian documovie about a family of vampires living in modern-day Brussels, dealing with modern-day problems. It's very clever and very well done, the funniest movie at Fantasia this year for me for sure. What's neat about it is that it successfully creates a reality where vampires could be existing among us and a bit part of the movie is letting the audience explore that reality. And then nestled on top of that is a humorous look at a bourgeois family that would be funny even if they weren't vampires. All of the family members are interesting, but the patriarch really drives this film. He has the elegant bearing of nobility that a good vampire patriarch should have, with a slightly menacing humour. He has to deal with his daughter who wants to be human, his out of control son and the resentful "neighbours" who live in the basment (by vampire law, if you don't have children, you can't have a house of your own; this sets up a lot of hilarious tension).
About three-quarters of the way through the movie, they get into trouble and are exiled to Quebec. This is funny in and of itself, but they take it even farther with the way the vampire community is set up here and then because this was Fantasia, everybody was just loving it for being local.
A great start to an excellent Sunday double bill at Fantasia.
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