ETERNITY
DIRECTOR: Chris Dos Santos
CAST: Rikki Brest, Andre Frauenstein, Christina Storm, Ian Roberts, Gys de Villiers, Hlomla Dandala and David James
RUNNING TIME: 94 mins
CLASSIFICATION: 13V
RATING: HHIII
When dealing with any genre of film, there are standards that need to be followed, or, if possible, exceeded.
For instance, if you are going to shoot a karate flick, then somewhere in there you have to have actors who look like they can literally kick butt. You can’t afford to have wannabes unless it is deliberate.
So when word spreads that a local vampire flick is about to be made, you expect the general attributes that come with it, fear being the main one. But I was not afraid in this one. Not for a second. Startled yes, but not afraid. There are traces of promise in the plot at first, but as the dark story goes on and on you feel like you are trapped in a year-long eclipse.
The story follows Billy (Frauenstein), a young vampire who has fallen for a human girl called Jenny (Brest). Yes, Twilight has certainly inspired many.
Billy’s new love costs him his friendship with ex-girlfriend Lisa (Storm), who joins forces with vamp leader Borlak (James) to bring Billy down. Lisa does it for revenge while Borlak needs Billy to stop his fight against the development of a daywalking serum for the bloodsuckers.
Bad acting. That’s the first thing wrong about this movie. Vamps, we would like to believe, behave in a cold, calculated way that sends chills down human spines. Not in Eternity though.
Take James, for instance. He may have been almost Oscar-worthy material in District 9, but here as the arch-vampire he appears so eager to convince he is deadly, that in the end his snarls are almost laughable.
It’s nothing like Lestat from Queen of the Damned who could kill with a look.
Hlomla Dandala was obviously out of his comfort “hunk” zone. Here he’s a vampire-hunting cop, but he seems unsure about what he’s doing in the flick.
Director Chris Dos Santos does get some things right.
If you ignore the incoherently edited scenes, you will appre ciate things such as the vampires bursting into flames when they die and the cool parkour tricks they do when they are on the hunt.
Besides that, a lot could have been done to let viewers feel that the bloodsuckers were threatening all humanity. Kudos for trying, guys, but no matter how sharp fangs may look, on the surface you still need to at least appear as if you’re about to bite me.
If you liked… From Dusk Till Dawn 2 and the rest of its low-budget follow-ups… then you will like this. - Tonight