Slow pace in the most part of the movie.

It’s an especially fun movie from a director and cast who are clearly having a good time allowing themselves to let loose.

If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

Not sure how, but this is easily one of the best movies all summer. Multiple levels of funny, never takes itself seriously, super colorful, and creative.

THIS IS HOW VAMPIRES CAME TO BE. THE MODERN WAY PEOPLE THINK OF VAMPIRES IS ONLY ABOUT 200 YEARS OLD. ALL THE REVIEWS WHO THOUGHT IT WAS A HORRIBLE REFERENCE TO VAMPIRES COULDN'T BE MORE WRONG. THE IDEA OF VAMPIRES WAS AROUND LONG BEFORE Dracula. I've never seen a movie which depicted vampirism as it was before the 1800s when it became all about fangs, big collars, castles on a hilltop, etc.. and it was quite refreshing. The story could have been written a little better, but as far as getting old superstitions correctly, they did great. The first "vampires" were actually just people who suffered from TB, or consumption as it was called.(The "castle" they stayed in in the movie used to be a recovery for people with consumption.) Usually the first to fall ill was the one the people thought was a vampire. Since the disease literally withered their bodies away, it was thought that the dead were draining the living. Their proof was digging up the Graves, as they did in the movie, and if the body appeared fresh then they were a vampire, which was also depicted in the movie when they dug up the girl and fresh blood ran out of her mouth. Afterwards, they would steak the heart, cut off the head and burn the body. In some cases they would cut out the heart, burn it, then have the sick drink the hearts ashes thinking this would cure them. My point being, maybe if more people realized it's much more accurate than they think, they'd like it a bit more. I could go on, but if you like history, vampires and creepy stories, you should like this movie.

Kinda saw that coming, didn't you? The title I mean. Yeah, the very subjective take on not particularly great film that threw around Joy Division references and "Means to An End" at crucial moments. I'm sold! If Styria had been made in the 70s its spirit and iconography it was trying to recreate would have been a memorable piece. Still, I kinda feel for the pure fanboyism for the film and music of that period this piece displays and am on board. Would I do the same, given the opportunity? You bet!Stephen Rea. Time to face the facts: greatest actor that never was! Loved this gent since Citizen X, but he just did not give his 100% here. Just kind of exists and wanders through this film hoping for it to be over already.Can't shake the feeling Styria was an ambitious project. What it lacks in story telling and filmmaking skills makes up in pure enthusiasm. Usually, it is not enough. Was enough for me though, at least this time. I'd "blame" it on predominant music choices, couple of lovely gals, Hungarian countryside and some brief gore. Captures that Gothic atmosphere quite well. So, mission accomplished, as far as I'm concerned. Means to an end. Yeah.

The previous reviews of Styria are wildly mixed, from rave to pan. Some reviewers are clearly not all that familiar with moody Gothic horror, and in particular those films (and television) from the 1960's and '70's, and so the film seems fresh and unique. Others have very logical minds, and so the incongruities of the film are unforgivable. I'll try to have my comments come from a mindset somewhere in the middle...Styria is a highly flawed and yet handsome film, full of attractive actors (specifically actresses), a rich Gothic mood, and unusual locations. The characters are highly inconsistent, the signals often repetitive, and the dialogue usually rings of 'English as a second language' awkward. Though the plot is often subtle, the individual scenes are more regularly heavy-handed. The cast is extremely photogenic, which seems to be at the cost of acting... none are truly terrible, but leads Eleanor Tomlinson as Lara, particularly in her scenes with Stephen Rea, and Julia Pietrucha as Carmilla, choke out their unnatural dialogue and often play understated emotions as if to the last row of the theater.The worst performance is Jacek Lenartowicz as General Spiegel, completely over the top and nonsensical. One might argue that the film is intended to have a dream-like feel, which it most likely is, and that the ambiguity of the characters is meant to reflect this, but his true motives are so heavily confirmed near the end that whatever point intended by the vagueness is completely lost. In fact the motives of all of the characters are brought into question at one point or another, which I feel is one of the films strengths. But none are resolved in an interesting manner.******************************spoilers************************* Perhaps the biggest flaw to the film is the crazy number of concepts set forth to explain the strange goings-on. There's the ancient stairwell, the backwards townsfolk, the vampire theory, the idea of some spirit who periodically comes forward to compel young women to commit suicide. The outcome is unclear, though the Showtime blurb on the movie (shown under the name 'Angels of Darkness') is "Lara's psychic wounds cause a living nightmare that consumes an entire town". This is arguably the most interesting explanation of events, though not made clear by the story, and one probably not taken from the source novel, 'Carmilla'. Early in the film it's explained that Lara was accused of pushing a girl down the stairs at her former school, and as a result was expelled. She denies this, and her journal, full of stylized watercolors, shows the scene as if Lara's shadow did the pushing. Is the implication that Lara is psychokinetic, and the loss of her new and close friend Carmilla, mixed with her delusions based on the local myths, is somehow creating a psychic wave that compels the local girls to kill themselves? The townspeople, with no explanation other than 'you're not from here', seem to blame Lara for the tragic events. Some even kill the afflicted girls, as if they're somehow contagious. All very muddy...Overall a messy, interesting film, not a waste of time but far from satisfying and whole. The finest attribute, the beautiful imagery, has mostly to do with the attractive cast and highly textured settings. Otherwise a grab bag of too many unexplored ideas, wild inconsistencies, and heavy acting and dialogue.

Welcoming, but sort of disappointing effort to bring to the screen this modern age version of Carmilla, the classic horror/Gothic/romantic vampire story written by Sheridan Lefanu. The movie has a crafted cinematography (probably the plus of the movie) and direction. It succeeded to create a bittersweet horror dream like atmosphere that by the last third of the film makes us completely hooked into it. Contributing to that is the awesome performance of Julia Pietrucha on the hole of Carmilla, a seductive young lady that end up becoming an supernatural entity that feed from the blood of virgin women.The things go south when we see the high potential that the script could had have and was thrown away. Seeing that it putted the story in a modern age era and created an intriguing situation for the reason why Lara and her father are brought to this ancient castle in Styria is a good point but at the same time, it turned some of the characters, that are so intense and romantically tragic in the book, in flat weak evil characters for the example of the General Spiegel.The glimpse of women empowerment message that it brings with the character of Carmilla, and the hole situation of her possible "transformation" don't pay back when her supernatural objectives come to life in a really distorted way... and when we have such weak character as Lara, that sometimes is over exposed as a goth teen spoiled teenager that cut herself and has pictures of Ian Curtis on her walls. Not that the hole new wave and goth looks aren't cool but it's sometimes just too much. Though the soundtrack is good, the visuals are great, it's just the text and editing that could be better to live up to the expectations to bring a great reinterpretation of this great novel to life.