'80s, '90s Horror & Sci-Fi • NIGHT OWL(1993)

 Jake is handsome, sullen, and streetwise, but also sensitive and deeply troubled. He's been 19 for 40 years, and he's a vampire. He attains his liquid sustenance during sex with young female victims he meets at a local punk club. The brother of his last victim is looking for his missing sister in all the craggiest NYC nightspots. He's got a suspicious eye on Jake, who has fallen in love with a bohemian stage performer, and is fighting his vampire urges.

 A nano-budget project which was in production for two years, NIGHT OWL is an early example of a brief 90s-era indie cinema movement. Possibly always set in East Village NYC, and shot in grainy 16MM B/W, these films are parenthesised in the "heroin chic" aesthetic. Equal parts arthouse and grindhouse, NIGHT OWL preoccupies itself with a ratherishly nouvelle vague stylistic push, which doesn't really manifest all that impressively. The story is a nothingburger variably redolent of MARTIN at times, and the naturalistic performances are passable at best. JOHN LEGUIZAMO is featured in an early role. Trans Warhol Factory personality HOLLY WOODLAWN is also on-hand, as a libidinous barfly.

 Watchable enough, but roundly a fustian college film which vividly anticipated the inglorious career of its director. THE ADDICTION explores similar foundations, and does so far more efficiently. Meh.

statistics: Posted by trashcotillion — 12:42 PM - Today — Replies 0 — Views 80

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