Such a frustrating disappointment

A waste of 90 minutes of my life

It's a feast for the eyes. But what really makes this dramedy work is the acting.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

Spoilers do not reveal major plot points or affect the integrity of the film. We Are the Night (German: Wir sind die Nacht) is a 2010 German vampire horror film directed by Dennis Gansel. German language with English subtitles. Also available in English without subtitles. I'm a lover of all things horror and have recently warmed to German films which made this combo a must see for me. The film packs some powerful punches as it explores concepts like youth, beauty, depression, self-harm, suicide, aging and the consequences of immortality along with Valerie Solanas' idea of an all-female society. These themes are wrapped so snugly into the film that it's revelations are practically seamless. At the beginning of the film we are introduced to lovely but lonely Lena (artfully played by Karoline Herfurth). She's a tough teen whose life is overshadowed by the cold despair, hopelessness and pointlessness which often accompanies abject poverty. Her life is dominated by negative interactions with male authority figures in the police, her parole officer and those she pickpockets on the streets. Her only reprieve from this desolation seems to come from escapism into the German underground. It is in one of these undergrounds where she meets Louise, the head of a 3 person pack of attractive female vampires. One is Charlotte, a breathtakingly beautiful former silent movie star who seems distant and removed from the world around her. The other is Nora, a cute and perky. young, hip raver girl with enough energy your head will spin just watching her as she parties her way from one scene to the next. Louise herself is a rather attractive and regal looking woman whose maker was killed by sunlight. Louise becomes consumed with the idea that somewhere out there her lost love and sole mate will be reincarnated and she will recognize her by looking deeply into her eyes. Incidentally, this plays nicely off the concept that eyes are the windows of the sole. But how can one know for certain it's their lost love with only a glance? You can't and thus Louise turns each girl who might be her lost love but inevitably finds they are not "the one" and so continues her search. Even though there's an inevitability to each new partner not quite meeting Louse's expectations she does not discard them upon this revelation. Choosing instead to collect and keep them like living photos of whichever century she steals them from. They remain at her side as immortal cohorts in crime.Early on in the movie, Louise shares the premise to their way of life with her freshly initiated young whelp, Lena. All of the male vampires were murdered by the females for being "too noisy, too greedy and too stupid."Upon first glance that might make the viewer draw the conclusion that this film is about misandry and those evil feminists plotting to take over the world. On closer observation though it proceeds to carry a completely different message, via multiple scenes in which the female vampires make any number of vacuous decisions, equal to, if not greater than their so-called "inferior" male counterparts. The takeaway of this film is a two-fold message; Men and women are equal in their more redemptive traits like selflessness, kindness and compassion. Scattered throughout the movie are small breadcrumbs alluding to this such as a rather poignant moment in which Nora is intentionally cruel when a sweet young bellhop who likes her, offers her a flower at the steps of their hotel. She tells him she'll have him fired if he dares ever speak to her again because she knows if she returns his affections it will lead to his death by her hands. Women are also equally capable of committing monumental acts of evil and cruelty such as when Louise, taking on role of mother and lover, dumps the vulnerable and ailing Lena at the feet of a human trafficker who intends to beat and rape her into "submission."It's the sum of these small scenes which add up to the breathtakingly big revelation that the female vampires inevitable outcomes are due to their own shortcomings of greed, carelessness and stupidity..the very (all too human) traits Louise earlier subscribed to as the reason for the downfall of their male counterparts. The ending, in particular, actually refutes any claims to be made for misandry both in the choices Lena makes for herself and the fate of the other vampires who have been subscribing to such misandry.Other interesting points:The original script for this film was written before "Twilight" but shelved for other projects until after "Twilight" came out. Due to the similarities between the original script and Twilight, Gansel had Jan Berger rewrite the script, now under the title "Wir sind die Nacht." It's loosely based around Carmilla and sanitizes out most scenes involving a romance between Lena and a police officer in favor of a love story between women.Heiko Maile was inspired by the score of the film "The Dark Knight" and how it combined electronic music with orchestra and electric guitar. Maile used "Au Clair De La Lune" as Charlotte's theme. Peppered throughout the film are other outstanding musical scores. Among them, IAMX's "Nightlife" and "Wir sind die Nacht" by Covenant. Well worth a purchase of the album for these two songs alone. Torsten Breuer's cinematography, Shot for shot, make this is a gorgeous film and a feast for the eyes. In a brilliant maneuver, Breuer and Gansel manage to make the vampires nocturnal world of night, wildly colorful and lush while simultaneously making daytime life seem cold, bleak and colorless.I highly recommend joining these fun loving and endearing homicidal psychopaths for a bit as they send you on a dizzying romp of action, gore and genuine drama.

Louise, Charlotte, and Nora kill and drink the blood of every one on a small exclusive jet. Then they jump out before the crash; nice touch.Next we get a look at Lena, a teen delinquent: pickpocketing, credit card theft and fraud, assault and battery on a policeman, evading arrest, underage drinking, vandalism. She evades policeman Tom after stealing the credit card of a Russian mobster whom Tom was chasing. Tom catches Lena, but she gets away from him again. Lena's mother seems to be intimate with Lena's current parole officer, which might keep the number of arrests down.The vampire women host raves to meet people who will not be missed, plus drinking and dancing. Louise is always looking for just the right pair of eyes; she likes Lena's, and lets her into a rave. Louise bites her in the ladies' room and Lena starts to change quickly, as in sunlight sensitivity the next morning, plus hunger for blood. She returns to Louise the next night. In passing they mention that there are only 100 vampires in the world, and all of them are female.After some enjoyment with the three older vampires, Lena makes the mistake of going home. Tom meets her when she departs from her mother. He promises not to rat her out about stealing from the Russian pimp. They go for a coffee date, and start getting to know each other. Tom can tell that something big has changed in her life, and it's not the new boyfriend that Lena claims.Tom starts investigating; Lena keeps learning more about the other three vampires. Tom and his boss set up an assault on the hotel where the vampires live. Nora is lost to sunlight, but the other three escape. Lena prevents Louise from killing Tom, which complicates things considerably.Charlotte says good-bye to her almost ninety year old daughter, who recognizes Charlotte before she dies. Then Charlotte traps Louise and Lena in order to die from the sunlight of dawn.So only the triangle (Lena, Louise, Tom) remains. How might that end?------Scores------Cinematography: 10/10 Excellent. Some of the better vampire healing FX I've seen.Sound: 9/10 Excellent save the dubbing, which is merely good.Acting: z/10 Karoline Herfurth was fine, basically playing three roles. I liked the performances of Nina Hoss and and Jennifer Ulrich as well.Screenplay: 8/10 A foot chase starts in complete darkness, but continues in full light. No, thank you. One strike on continuity. The rest of the story hung together rather well.

This is a misleading film. This isn't a horror at all, it's more a drama taking place in a vampire world. There isn't really any biting going on or an amount of red stuff flowing. And that's why so many vampire lovers will tear this flick down. Because it's low on everything. Sure, they all look sexy especially Charlotte (Jennifer Ulrich) but somehow it doesn't work. look, when they are at an inside swimming pool and ask the boys to join. You can see what is coming and yes one girl take of her top to reveal her tits toward the guys but not for the viewers. You are left with a hunger. And there's a lot of dancing going on in the nightlife. I can take it once but always going to that place were in fact nothing is happening...except for the music itself. There's one scene were the vamps go wandering around and are driving their cars on Nightlife from IAMX. Being a fan of IAMX that was a nice surprise and you can hear the whole song. But be honest, it's a bit like Twilight, a bit like Romeo and Juliet. The forbidden love between a human and a vampire. Jeaulousy between the vampires, lesbian love between Louis and Charlotte, you could see the fight coming between them. Maybe I'm missing something that I didn't see, what is worth watching is the fight between both of them for the effects but by then it's too late. It's was a long night...Gore 0/5 Nudity 0/5 Effects 4/5 Story 3/5 Comedy 0/5

Germans tried to create their own Vampire franchise with "We are the Night" with mixed results. Compared with any of the TWILIGHT movies; this looks like a masterpiece; but with really great movies like NOSFERATU (in any of its version) this is just a clichéd movie with a few original ideas.The most interesting things are dialogs which based on my very limited German and subtitles seemed really smart. Another is that even when vampires are only women and there is a lot of lesbian innuendo; the movie is far from exploitative. There is no feminine nudity, no sexual scenes and a very PC moral message (here, nobody is happy to be a vampire). Even violence in the movie is more suggested than shown (there are a few brief strong scenes ; but mostly for the surprise effect ) . Lena, a minor delinquent is converted by Lena; an old bored vampire looking for her great love. Louise has two other vampires girlfriends; all living like "Sex and the City" in Berlin. An excess of glamour and luxury just to cover their empty lives. Lena is not very happy with her unwanted changes; particularly because she has a certain interest in a policeman; something forbidden by Louise for two reasons; he does not want men and even less policemen. There is not much more happening. The first act is strong but after Lena conversion, the second act looks extracted from "SEX AND THE CITY". The drama could have been really interesting if we knew something about each woman; but aside from a few dialogs and little back story about one of them; the others are pretty much a mysteries nobody cares to solve. The third act is more action driven and it is very effective with just the necessary amount of special effects in order to get things realistic. In brief; it is not a bad movie; but considering it comes for the country that re-invented cinema and the vampire genre; it is below expectations.