Rating: B-
Dir: Shimako Sato
Star: Julian Sands, Suzanna Hamilton, Kenneth Cranham, Marion Diamond
[13] Financed in Japan, directed by a lady,inspired by an Edgar Allen Poe poem, and oozing Anne Rice-ness – strange in many ways! Sands is the title character, pining for a love lost last century, who finds a replacement working in a dust-filled library, but he’s also pursued by a mysterious man with a grudge (Cranham). Sands seems born to the role (Gothic was good experience, no doubt) and Cranham is a good foil: together, with help from excellent cinematography, they overcome a script with some glaring errors (I doubt many public libraries in London are open till closing time) and the result, on a budget of less than a million pounds, is striking. More Daughters of Darkness than The Lost Boys, gore bores will hate it, but if your IQ is less lukewarm you could do a great deal worse.