Night Junkies Review

Set in the winding streets and dark alleyways of riverside London, the story centers on an unusual couple, Ruby and Vincent. Ruby works as a lap dancer for an East-end outfit intent on promoting her as a call girl. Coming from a very dark past, Ruby has always had to battle the world. Vincent was ‘turned’ in a dark alleyway by a femme fatale, and after weeks of battling with his condition, he has now learnt to give in to his addiction: blood.

Vincent and Ruby meet via a chance encounter in a London café and fall in love during one special night. Vincent goes against his heart and tries to feed on Ruby to satisfy his addiction. Ruby escapes, but has now been ‘turned’ and has also become an addict… a junkie… a vampire. Ruby, unsure of what is happening to her, returns to a remorseful Vincent who convinces her to stay and work things out.

Together hey try to go ‘cold turkey’ on their blood addiction. Ruby’s previous ‘owners’ want their star girl back and Psycho (a contemporary Jack The Ripper) seeks her out.

Psycho eventually catches up with them, which makes for an explosive and deadly fight to the end…

What We Thought.

Every day Enchanted Entertainment gets several review copies of up and coming movies through the post without having to ask for them. Night Junkies however, is one movie that we have been following and eagerly awaiting the release of since it first began online promotions. As soon as review copies became available we requested one and hoped beyond hope that the movie wouldn’t disappoint. Well, let me assure you it definitely didn’t and here’s why…..

Night Junkies is set in London, and all of its scenes are filmed almost entirely at night, setting a dark and eerie backdrop from the start. The key characters in the movie are a lap dancer called Ruby (Katia Winter) and a Vampire named Vincent (Giles Alderson) an unlikely couple who meet by chance in a small café. They fall for each other hard and fast but the story steps up a notch when Vincent gives in to his addiction and feeds on Ruby who escapes but has now been turned. With both of them now Vampires, Ruby begs Vincent to go cold turkey on their addiction, she can’t bring herself to feed from humans and although madly in love with Vincent resents the new lifestyle she has been given.

The Vincent/Ruby element in the film really is the glue that holds the whole thing together as it is their relationship and their love for each other and the fights they find themselves in that create the basis for almost every great scene.
Another important character in the movie is ‘Psycho’ played by Rene Zagger. This guy really does live up to his name, and in his determination to track down Ruby we witness him in several fantastic scenes, the most twisted of which involves him licking the blood splattered face of a recent victim. This was one of the best scenes as it really showed the ‘Monster’ within him and what he was truly capable of.

The acting in Night Junkies is damn near flawless, Katia Winter is particularly striking as Ruby and seems almost born to play the part, she is instantly likeable and her talent as an actress is blinding obvious. Giles Alderson is dark and brooding as Vincent, he pulls of an American accent surprisingly convincingly and his portrayal of the character reminded me somewhat of David Boreanaz in his role as ‘Angel’ in the Joss Whedon Vampire series. I loved that show so from me that’s a huge compliment!
Rene Zagger is deliciously twisted as ‘Psycho’ and somehow managed to be both humorous yet disturbing at the same time.
The rest of the supporting cast were also brilliant, I can’t remember having seen one person who didn’t act convincingly in their role and it was all of this combined, plus some kick ass camera angles and filming techniques that give Night Junkies so much appeal. I would highly recommend this movie to anyone who loves Vampire movies and hope to see it do brilliantly on its official release shortly!

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Lawrence Pearce’s inspirations for Night Junkies were Near Dark, The Addiction and the films of David Lynch, Quentin Tarantino and Darren Aronofsky. The soundtrack was composed by Michael England with contributions from Cervantes, The Downliners, Beto Cohen and more.
There is also a graphic novel created out of the world of Night Junkies being produced now which we can’t wait to get our hands on.Rating: