Let's be realistic.

good back-story, and good acting

an ambitious but ultimately ineffective debut endeavor.

All that we are seeing on the screen is happening with real people, real action sequences in the background, forcing the eye to watch as if we were there.

There were two screenings of Upyr by Alexei Tolstoi back in 90s. This one is rather good and close to the original story. Upyr was one of rare vampire stories written in Russian Empire in 19th century. At least it was one of the popular horror story among ordinary people, as the author became really respected by his fantastic stories. The director of this film managed to express the spirit and the mood of the story very close to the original. Good costumes, original dialogues, 19th century villas and perfect actors can be seen here. When a young man wants to marry a poor girl, her cousin envies her very much. She even makes everybody believe that the main character was in love with her. But the young man does not want to marry rich but stupid girl. He escapes from many difficulties in order to find his beloved who also became trapped in a luxurious villa with some strange relatives. The people inside villa are vampires, they were called upyri in those days in Russia. They suck blood of anyone who comes to see them. The young man too much in love so he looses his head and goes directly to the nest of vampires. There are some creepy and bloody moments in this film. The additional surprise was the score by great avangard composer Sergei Kuryohin.www.myspace.com/neizvestnostlab