Night
Watch (2004) and Day Watch (2006) are the beginning and
ending of a Russian epic/vampire tale.
What's
so unique about these films? Mainly, they're different. Different,
as well, night and day. Yeah, cliche, I know. Okay, I'll stop
trying to be clever. Just tell it.
There
are all kinds of vampire stories -- straight-up comedy,
horror-comedy, love story, pure horror, and these two. Horror but
not slasher. They're a little gritty, and definitely not flashy.
And,
we're introduced to a borderline-tragic hero who lives his personal
life like one of the old dime novel detectives, occasionally having
to get pig's blood on the cheap from a butcher who works both sides
of the street.
Yes, these films (I have to
speak of them as one, as they're so intricately connected), the
creation of Russian director/writer Timur Bekmambetov, bust genres
apart, as IMDb lists them as action/fantasy/thriller, but they're
leaving out horror, epic battle, and one part love story.
Quoting
IMDb again, they describe Bekmambetov's movies as surprising "...
the viewers with eerie details, hectic pace, and unusual twists and
turns...". I think that's a vast understatement. That's like
saying Hitchcock does clever little murder mysteries. No, no.
There's a heckuva lot going on there.
Images
flash and dance across the screen in a nearly subliminal fashion,
leaving my mouth hanging open, Wile E. Coyote-like. Each shot alone
is not necessarily eerie or creepy, or frightening, but when they're
threaded together the way he does, they're primordially scary and
disturbing, without going for the gross-out.
Almost
forgot to mention the musical score. He weaves in at times for some
of the most potent action sequences a metal rock soundtrack that
accelerates everything.
Like
other large, epically-supernatural movies, we're given the idea that
our world has contained humans and the Others, beings of supernatural
abilities, that once fought a world-destroying battle for the fate of
All. Two armies, good and evil, led by Zavulon (bad guy) and Geser
(good guy), would have destroyed themselves and the world, if not for
a truce called by Geser.
The
truce sets up two police forces -- Night Watch and Day Watch, made up
of Dark and Light Others. Night Watch makes sure the Light Others
behave according to the Truce, and Day Watch does the same for the
Dark Others. Confused? Yeah, me, too. I watched both movies for my
second time the other day, and I'm still hashing them out. But, what
I know is I love these films and even if you don't follow them, it's
a ride-and-a-half down a screaming dark road at Midnight with Angels
and Demons chasing you.
Flash
to current day, and our hero, a guy named Anton, makes a deal with an
old witch (shoulda known better, Anton). This one little act sets in
motion a Rube Goldberg series of events that begins with Anton
realizing he's an Other (can't tell you if he's Light or Dark -- you
gotta find out for yourself) and ending (?) with the End o' the World
(yeah, back to the World Ending thingy again).
Only
a couple of places where I'll pick nits. When we get to the second
movie, Day Watch, he (Timur) concocts a convenient plot device called
The Chalk of Fate. Without that, Really Bad Things Could Happen. To
quote Stan Lee, "'nuff said".
Overall,
this is an incredible Diabolical Duo of movies, and one of the things
I loved was how Bekmambetov connected parts of his own life within
the films. For instance, the Light Others go on patrol in what looks
like a large yellow furniture-moving truck, with lettering on the
side of the vehicle that says they're with the Department of Energy.
So happens that Bekmambetov's dad worked for the Guryev Energy
Company.
Night/Day
Watch has knights of old and knights of young, shape-shifters,
witches, sorcerers, vampires, and just all kinds of, well, fun
strangeness.
My
suggestion -- track down these films, cloister yourself for a few
hours with the lights down, and go for it. The fate of just about
everything is in your hands.
'til
next time... Adios.
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