DVD Review – Vampire Academy
3 min read
Edward Cullen worshippers watch out, there’s a new vampire chick flick in town and although it’s a little cheesy, it puts the Twilight films to shame. Vampire Academy is the latest vamp story to hit our screens and it’s Mean Girls meets St Trinian’s meets Twilight meets The Vampire Diaries.
Vampire Academy tells the story of Rose Hathaway (Zoey Deutch), who is part of a clan of half-human, half-vampires called the Dhampir. Unlike regular vampires who feast only on blood, the Dhampir are just like regular people who munch on cheeseburgers and chase after boys. Except for the fact that, like vampires, they’re incredibly fast and agile and they’re responsible for acting as guardians of the Moroi. The Moroi are a group of peaceful vampires who choose to go about life in our world in a discreet manner. Rose’s best friend Lissa Dragomir (Lucy Fry) is a Moroi and the last descendent in a line of vampire royalty. The two are bound together by a sacred bond and Rose hopes to one day become Lissa’s guardian, after she completes her training at St. Vladamir’s Academy.
The two attempt to go about their classes as normally as one can at a vampire academy but something strange is happening at the school. Lissa is having shocking and vivid nightmares, Rose is having peculiar flashbacks, the teaching staff are overly secretive, fellow students appear to be plotting against the pair and a bunch of dead animals keep turning up wherever Lissa goes. Determined to protect Lissa, Rose enlists the help of Natalie, played by Modern Family star Sarah Hyland, and the three make it their mission to unravel the mystery that lurks in the walls of the academy.
Tweens are going to love this film as it deals with all the dramas of adolescence. These vampire teenagers go through the dismay of boys, popularity, self harm, teen angst and losing one’s virginity, but the film puts all of these life hurdles into the context of the vampire world. When Lissa gets depressed and begins to self harm one might think she’s just your average teenage girl crying out for help but in fact she’s suffering from an ancient vampire curse. Teens are also going to love having one lead that resembles Taylor Swift and another that is trying perhaps a little too hard to be like Ellen Page. Rose Hathaway’s tough girl exterior and cynical sense of humour is very Juno.
I say Vampire Academy puts Twilight to shame because the latter failed to capture the creepiness of the unknown and fantastical. The scariest thing Twilight has to offer is some good-looking vampires looking to kill the Cullens and Bella Swan. The nightmare in Vampire Academy is the Strigoi, a group of bloodthirsty, red-eyed, cannibalistic vampires who frightfully resemble zombies and are downright disturbing.
This film is in no way everyone’s cup of tea and most will probably turn their noses up at it, but for a vampire movie it’s pretty entertaining and the ending was surprisingly unpredictable. Teenage girls of the world, go and sink your fangs into it!
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Yeah lets just ignore the fact they whitewashed the lead role—Rose Hathaway was supposed to be curvy, muscled and biracial (one of the few strong biracial female heroines in YA fiction and they make her a skinny scrawny white chick with no talent whos Hollywood ties got her the role.) Then to add insult to injury they make 50 year old white Alberta–excuse me in the film she’s Guardian Gabriella– black, inserting a token poc to make up for whitewashing the lead. Lets not even touch on Kirova who is supposed to be in her sixties and look like a buzzard—they cast a frigging BOND GIRL IN HER THIRTIES. How many discriminations can you fit in one movie? Watch Vampire Academy to find out.