By Maria Lewis
If you could live forever, what would you do? If you had the gift of immortality, what would you use it for? If they answer is “to bring justice to those who prey on the weak and to curb the power of men” then Byzantium may be the best horror movie you’ve never heard of. Which is weird, really, given the pedigree of talent involved.
Filmmaker Neil Jordan is a legend, with two seminal classics of the horror genre under his belt in The Company Of Wolves and Interview With The Vampire. Regardless of other excellent work that has spanned a career of more than 30 years (Wolves wasn’t the only film with overt feminist themes, hello The Brave One), Jordan was backed up with a screenplay written by one of the most underrated and quietly hustling ladies in the biz, Moira Buffini (Jane Eyre, Tamara Drewe). Add to that a deeply talented UK cast led by Gemma Arterton and Saoirse Ronan, plus the cinematography of Sean Bobbitt (12 Years A Slave, Shame) and you should have had a memorable horror classic. Instead, when Byzantium was released in 2012 it was met with a cough, a whimper and a mist in audiences’ minds as people simply forgot it.
Based on Buffini’s play A Vampire Story, the film follows the rather seemingly simple tale of a mother and daughter vampire duo: Clara (Arterton) and Eleanor (Ronan). They live permanently on the run from what we learn is a male-only vampire race. Clara and Eleanor are the only women and, in the words of their pursuers, abominations. Their story is told to us slowly through flashbacks, which begin in Clara’s youth growing up in a small, seaside town in England where she is abducted, sexually assaulted and sold into the sex trade. When she falls pregnant, she gives up her daughter to what she hopes is a better life than that which she has had for herself. A victim of time and circumstance, Clara sees an opportunity to change her fate when she hears of a mysterious island that can grant immortality. Yet things are never quite as they seem, with the gift of everlasting life coming at the price of becoming a vampire and part of an elite, wealthy and white league of individuals which, up until then, had been only men. Unsure of what to do with a female vampire (like, come on guys – sort your shit out), they at first see if they can make her submit. Clara? Well, she’s done with submitting. Not only does she disobey their rules, but she shares her power with her daughter Eleanor and together the pair embark on an enduring game of cat and mouse.
It’s not your standard vampire tale, suffice to say, and as well as serving up some overt feminist lessons it’s all packaged neatly within the exterior of a horror film. There are decapitations, arterial splatter, action set pieces, and – in a lasting piece of Gothic imagery so beautifully captured by Bobbit – a blood waterfall that cascades down a cliff face. It’s an epic tale that spans centuries and yet, five years after the fact, Byzantium is still sliding under the radar.
Was it perhaps too ahead of its time, coming just before the demand for better equality on and off screen was pushed into the mainstream? Before the success of Frozen, Mad Max: Fury Road, Rogue One and Moana proved leading ladies could make box-office bank? The enduring love story of Byzantium is between a mother and a daughter, both of whom who are incredibly complex characters brought to life with skilled, nuanced performances from Arterton and Ronan. Besides boasting two female leads with agency and drive, it was also written by a woman, based on the original concept by a woman, and produced by four women.
And perhaps that’s what explains why Byzantium is a film so few have heard of. In a deeply sexist, misogynistic industry that favours patriarchal values, is it any wonder this movie wasn’t given its time in the (metaphorical) sun? It had an unashamed feminist agenda. Jordan had already tackled the gender stereotypes with female werewolves back in 1984 and he tried to do the same for vampires in Byzantium. Although the world mightn’t have been ready for it in 2012, with increasing attacks on the freedoms and liberties of women in present day, they better be bloody ready for it in 2017.
Maria Lewis is a journalist and author previously seen on SBS Viceland’s The Feed. She’s the presenter and producer of the Eff Yeah Film & Feminism podcast. Her debut novel Who’s Afraid? was released in 2016 with the sequel – Who’s Afraid Too? – out now. You can find her on Twitter @MovieMazz.
