It is not uncommon for vampires to be associated with the works of Shakespeare, and Ronnie Khalil seems to make such connections in his film set in Santori, Greece. To bring the idea home, there is an attempt to combine queerness with a very loose retelling of Romeo and Juliet (which is more of a prequel than a sequel). We get some interesting lighting and a fresh idea, but the execution may leave some wanting.
In this version, a super title explains how Europe was plagued in the 1300s, while a pack of Greek vampires took refuge in Verona and stumbled upon the corpse of two young lovers. I would give a note here, for all the Greek folklore around the Vrykolakas, they sure do stick to the usual boring vampire myths. There is some unconventional lore at play that is, for the most part, ignored. The two youthful lovers were, of course, Romeo and Juliet. Ella Kweku, who played Juliet, got injured and died, then a vampire known as Father George Kavgalakis turned her.
The part about the modern Juliet comes 800 years later when the voice-over tells us that throughout her existence she has been in love twice the second time three days before her death, which is what triggered the first tragedy. Juliette reads Shakespeare’s play every single sunset. She also takes the same poison that Romeo took, which is served to her by her servant Amaltheo (George Kopsidas). She is ignorant of the fate that befell Romeo’s corpse. As of now, she has not fully transitioned to vampire, which as this narrative unravels, she would eventually turn out to be, but in simple words being a vampire is carefully elaborated, though not fully, in the story the viewers are a bit let down. The unfulfilling part of this state, however, relies on the fact that to transform, one has to kill rather than merely drink from the prey. The latter serves as a headstart to the next phase of the story where she is used to the poison that makes her seize and have convulsions but in a less conventional sense, which tells us that it is capable of killing a vampire, which again, in a way, is unsatisfactory in terms of narrative.
Farryn (Paige Emerson) is taking vacations in Greece but her father thinks she is in San Francisco. We have a flashback of her mother (Devin Mills) on her deathbed in the hospital suffering from cancer. At a café, she sees Juliet by herself. A Lothario tries hitting on the indifferent and dismissive Juliet (who below average crushes his privates during the meeting)(which is extremely below average). The girls make eye contact and brightness increases leading up to their eye contact showing how much of an emotional bond they share. Juliet disappears of course looking for someone. She is being followed, so she seizes the young boy following her who has a message from Father quite literally carved into him and carries a ring of Romeo. The implication is that Father possesses his body and the price she pays for possessing it for three days is to fully turn.
While on her walks, Farryn stumbled upon a drunken Juliet who was teetering on the edge of a cliff. Even, as rude as Juliet was, Farryn was compelled to lend a hand. In a sudden turn of events, Juliet dashed to the restroom and commenced throwing up blood, which caused panic. Looking to help, Amaltheo gets in the way which allows Farryn to slip out without notice. In her forgotten rush, she leaves her camera behind. In a change of plans, Farryn goes back for her camera but not before Juliet experiences a somewhat metamorphic change after feasting on Amaltheo. Farryn found her explanation of red wine and vomit far too troublesome to comprehend. Then ordering her out of the restroom, she reluctantly complies. As fate would have it, both of their paths intertwine the next day, and a budding romance sparks. To her dismay, Farryn faces the reality of the situation when Augustus’ cousin’s fangs are unleashed in the threat of feeding on Farryn Papazisis and so does the rage of the other.
Instead of panicking, Farryn immediately asks to be turned this may seem odd but the story does explain this in due time. Juliet starts to entertain the thought which brings about a green-eyed monster in Amaltheo and the two girls fall for each other. We learn that a vampire can be killed by decapitation, being set aflame, and drinking blood that is essentially dead. The blood can be dead in the sense that the person does not have to be dead yet but is dying (from a disease for example). As mentioned before, later we also find out that they can be poisoned but that made little sense in general. Vampires lose their power to see color which was the lore but little was done to develop it. Instead, it was just used to make Farryn explain sunsets and rises. Juliet can bear the sun but that could be a partially turned thing. Fully turning is said to suppress feeling and emotion which is claimed to be the reason.
Changing Juliet’s ethnicity was a clever decision, and so was queering worked as a concept. I was also impressed with how the brightness increased at certain times and how it sterns the expression of emotion. On the other hand, I thought the performances were very weak. I didn’t feel there to be much of a connection between the two main characters, which may have stemmed from Ella Kweku’s portrayal of Juliet being somewhat distant. The performance came across as somewhat unnatural, but I could not tell whether it was the actors or the lines that caused it.
When talking about Juliet in the context of Shakespeare, the possibility of her existing as a real person suggests that she admits to having told Shakespehere her story and him making it into a play, which as we know has existed for three centuries now. This ignores the fact that Shakespeare took the story from Arthur Brooke’s poem “Romeus and Juliet” (1562), which came from an Italian novel or French. But this level of detail would have been overly complex and the shorthand version provided by Shakespeare was much easier.
This had the makings of a good story and at one point, I liked it, but not as much as I thought I would. This mainly came down to the dialogue and the performance. It wasn’t terrible, but it could’ve been better. The vampirism aspect wasn’t as clear as it should’ve been, the vision of colorless eyes could’ve been more artistic, and more details could’ve been woven in with the jealous servant and the sinister family.
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