Strigoi

Tired of sparkling vampires?  Bored with horny blood-suckers with Southern accents?  Worn out by the over dressed undead who dwell in musty old castles?

If you answered "YES" to any of the above, then director, Faye Jackson's Strigoi is the movie for you!

Strigoi (the undead) is the story of a small village in Romania where the locals have decided to knock off a corrupt land owner and his wife.  Unfortunately, the couple return as "Strigoi"...vampire-like beings who will, quite literally, eat you out of house and home if you let them.  That is, they will raid your pantry, your stove, your bread box...and once they've devoured every scrap of food you might have, they will go for your blood.

Now I don't know anything about Romanian folk lore, but I like the idea of the corpse coming back for real food, and then going for blood once the cupboards are bare.

Be that as it may, once the fun starts, a young man named, Vlad (Catalin Paraschiv) returns to the village after a failed attempt at finding his fortunes in Italy.  Almost immediately, Vlad discovers something is amiss...from shady land deals, to haphazard police work, to people dying without the proper authorities being notified.  Vlad is a good guy, maybe a bit of a slacker as he is the only one of his brothers and sisters who has not become a doctor, but his heart is in the right place, and soon enough he finds himself becoming the story's hero.

Infused with wit, intelligence, skulduggery and even some social commentary, Strigoi is that rare animal; a horror film that requires the viewer to pay attention to both the action and dialouge.  You will find very little blood letting here, and only a touch of gore.  To truly appreciate Strigoi, one must put away one's expectations of the vampire genre and prepare for a new version of the myth infused with some brilliant twists and turns.