The Radleys is a fresh and funny British spin on the vampire genre
What if the totally normal, if a little pale, family living next door to you were vampires? That's the fun concept behind Sky's new British vampire movie The Radleys, which held its world premiere at Edinburgh International Film Festival.
Adapted from Matt Haig's book of the same name, The Radleys sees Damian Lewis and Kelly Macdonald play Peter and Helen Radley. They used to be practising vampires, but have abstained from drinking human blood for over a decade, even keeping their children in the dark about who they really are.
But when their daughter Clara (Bo Bragason) is attacked on the way home from a party, her bloodthirsty instincts kick in and she brutally kills her attacker. Soon enough, Peter and Helen don't just have a body to get rid of, they've also got a lot of explaining to do to Clara and her brother Rowan (Harry Baxendale).
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Vampire movies are a crowded field, but we don't actually have too many standout homegrown takes on the genre (funnily enough, we're not counting Lesbian Vampire Killers). The Radleys aims to change that by following the typical rules of the genre, and adding a British spin.
Set in a suburb of book clubs, repressed feelings and awkward neighbourhood parties, the movie is a relatively restrained and contained vampire offering. The classic elements are there, including the highly sexual aspects of vampirism, but the movie is less concerned about bloodshed and more about the family at the heart of it.
In one of the best changes from Haig's book, Rowan is coming to terms not just with being a vampire, but also his own growing feelings for neighbour Evan (Jay Lycurgo). It adds an deeper layer to Rowan's feelings of being an outsider and forming his own identity, with Harry Baxendale excellent as the socially awkward teenager.
The journey to screen has also seen Peter's brother Will, an openly practising vampire, become his twin. Not only does this allow Damian Lewis to impress in a dual role, especially as the debauched Will, but it's an effective visual metaphor of the two distinct paths that Rowan and Clara now face with their true nature.
We don't want to make The Radleys sound too dry because it is also a darkly funny satire of middle-class suburban life. Both Damian Lewis and Kelly Macdonald have sharp comic timing, expertly portraying the barely-contained emotions of being abstaining vampires with the delicious thrills of letting themselves go.
Fans of the book might be disappointed that we don't get too much from The Abstainer's Handbook, the book-within-a-book of The Radleys that's the vampire equivalent of Beetlejuice's book for the recently deceased. However, writer Talitha Stevenson finds an entertaining way to homage that, as well as various other elements of Haig's quirky take on vampires.
The most impressive element of The Radleys is that, thanks to its talented cast and smart tweaks to the original story, you'll care for this family come the inevitably bloody finale. They might be vampires, but they feel believably human in their desires and fears, even relatable to a certain extent.
Whether you'd want to live next to them is another matter, but you'll definitely want to let The Radleys into your home when it's released in October.
The Radleys is released in cinemas and on Sky Cinema on October 18.
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