BITE ME
Directed by: Meredith Edwards
Starring: Naomi McDougall Jones, Christian Coulson, Naomi Grossman, Antino Crowley-Kamenwati
When Sarah, a real-life vampire, gets audited, the last thing she expects is a date. But an unlikely spark with IRS agent, James, forces two misfits to confront whether they have the courage to commit the radical act of falling in love.
If you are expecting a "vampire movie" then Bite Me may disappoint. However if you are seeking a thoughtful, romantic comedy which uses "vampires" as an allegory for those marginalised by society, then by all means stick around.
Sarah and her two flatmates are vampires - they need to ingest human blood on a regular basis. However they have no supernatural powers and they do not kill people. When a vampire from Sarah's past takes part in a dating game show, he outs himself as a vampire causing consternation in social media. To make matters worse, the IRS decides to exploit the opportunity and audit a so-called Vampire Church, run by Sarah…
Her caseworker is James, still new to the job and who is derisive of Sarah's claim that she is a vampire. However the pair have a subsequent heart-felt conversation and James agrees to look closer at her case. In so doing, James is introduced to the world of the modern-day vampire and becomes more and more enthralled by Sarah.
There are many obstacles in the way of James and Sarah's relationship. Chief among them is that James is surrounded by people associated with his overbearing and staunchly religious mother, including his boss at the IRS and his room-mate, who is also a work colleague. Because he is meant to be auditing Sarah and her vampire church he has to be very careful not to have his relationship exposed.
James has lived his whole life up to this moment under the control of his mother, or even had orchestrated his first marriage and pulled strings to get him the IRS position. Christian Coulson does a great job of portraying a guy who is very much a late bloomer, discovering a personality he didn't realise was there. Meanwhile Naomi McDougall Jones makes Sarah cool, fierce, vulnerable and naïve . She's not perfect in any sense but someone you can believe James falling in love with.
Bite me has a number of stand-out moments and odd characters - the vampire birthday party and James' dancing prowess for example - but the film's best moment comes when Sarah confesses to something in the film's climax. The writing and the acting merge into producing something really heartfelt and moving.
THE VERDICT
Bite Me can be viewed in different ways - an off kilter rom-com, or a heartfelt allegory for those marginalised by society, be it due to gender, sexuality, religion or a mix of all three. The humour is dry but the script is delivered very ably by the cast, especially the two leads, and that final scene is a knockout.