Vampire Carnival review – it’s Twilight at the fairground as abs run wild in pointy-toothed tug of war

‘Does this whole Edward Cullen act actually work?” A distinct Twilight feeling is in the air in this initially enlivening vampire flick, with willowy twentysomething mortal Gemma (Nell Verlaque) caught in the middle of a pointy-toothed tug of war between tender Italian hunk Sebastian (Alvise Rigo) and her bad boy ex Eric (Kieron Moore). When she strolls with her friends into a hot vampire carnival, the ab count nearly outdoes the haemoglobin one. But this good-looking whirligig winds up disappointingly disjointed.

Gemma is still regrouping after her father’s suicide, an unspecified amount of time earlier. So her mum is relieved when she takes a night off from grieving by checking out the local fair with pals Ryan (Corrado Martini) and Olivia (Pauline Chávez). Absent for many years, creepy Eric has apparently joined the circus, featuring as the ostentatiously self-harming Man Who Feels No Pain. But when Sebastian invites Gemma into the carnival’s orgiastic inner sanctum, she learns they are a coven of bloodsuckers who, under leader Toussaint (Jason Isaac), have a strict no-killing code of conduct. Or, in the case of potential initiates like Gemma, obtaining consent. “No means no,” says immortal softboi Sebastian.

As befits any self-respecting ringmasters, directors David Charbonier and Justin Douglas Powell operate with much visual panache. They announce the trio’s entrance into the carnival with a splendid one-shot, tracking them, the denizens and local cop Dan (Cedrick Cooper). Later, they mount a crystalline confrontation between Ryan and Eric in a hall of mirrors. But, as with such stage endeavours, some of the effects are a bit cheesy: the supposedly Dionysian bolthole comes over more like a gastropub on deep-house DJ night. And Isaacs, playing the head vamp like a Rada fetish Gandalf, is at odds with the tone of what was previously a pleasingly downbeat slice of American alt.culturedom.

The emphasis on general flamboyant ambience is more detrimental story-wise. In particular, the film vacillates between positioning the increasingly insubordinate Eric as kooky undead loose cannon and genuine tragic antihero, though the charismatic Moore does a lot to tie him into a satisfying, lethal whole. The schism in vampire philosophies is underexplored, and not enough ground is laid for the final reveal about Gemma and Eric’s troubled backstories. To turn Sebastian’s come-on to Gemma on its head, Vampire Carnival is too taken with the illusion instead of the truth.