The Radleys
Directed by Euros Lyn
Written by Talitha Stevenson, Jo Brand
Starring Harry Baxendale, Damian Lewis, Kelly Macdonald, Bo Bragason
Running time 1 hour and 55 minutes
Rated R
In theaters, on digital and demand October 4

by "Doc" Hunter Bush, Staff Writer

Based on the 2011 novel by Matt Haig, The Radleys is about a normal-seeming family–doctor dad Peter (Damian Lewis), active housewife mom Helen (Kelly Macdonald), gay photographer son Rowan (Harry Baxendale), and vegan, sorta-bitchy sister Clara (Bo Bragason)–with a big secret. When Clara accidentally kills an attempted rapist in the woods, the parents find themselves forced into at least three tough spots. Not only do they have to come clean to their kids about the "family disease", but they have to dispose of the body to keep Clara out of jail and keep their vampirism a secret. To accomplish this, they have to call Peter's twin brother Will (also Damian Lewis) who rolls up in an RV full of absolute chaos.

I've been watching a LOT of vampire films this year, gearing up for Vamp-tober on the Hate Watch/Great Watch Podcast, and one thing that's dawned on me is that playing with "the rules" of vampires is as much of a staple of vampire fiction as anything else. The TV Tropes page for Our Vampires Are Different is chock-a-block with examples great and small. In The Radleys, vampires find sunlight irritating but not deadly, and are able to choose to abstain from drinking blood at the cost of most of the usual vampire abilities.

Blood is treated somewhat like alcohol and/or drugs within the world of The Radleys. For one, Clara's attitude after starting to imbibe–which is so shitty and petulant that she can't even keep her cool long enough to avoid tipping the cops off that she was involved in the murder. Rowan's sneaking little airplane-size bottles of blood from Uncle Will's fridge to work up the courage to talk to the boy he likes. Obviously, Helen and Peter's abstaining and keeping the vampirism from the kids parallels hard partiers giving up the life to raise a family.

All of this is called into very high contrast by the presence of Uncle Will. His hair is longer than Peter's, he wears lots of open shirts, and generally "doesn't see what the big deal is" about everything. But there's a sinister edge to him. He encourages the kids' more negative instincts and almost immediately brings up some past relationship between he and Helen, which doesn't totally make Helen uneasy. Pretty shortly, Peter starts on his journey, straight out of American Beauty: sneaking blood in the garage, seeking (or at least being open to) extramarital relationships, all while being kind of oblivious to all the tumult in his family unit.

The Radleys is an odd duck, but not a bad time. Four of the five family members are pretty well-developed. The exception, weirdly, is Clara who is mostly a walking inciting incident and has less development than some supporting characters, like the boy Rowan likes (Jay Lycurgo) and his ex-cop dad (Shaun Parkes) who fully believes The Radleys are vampires and blames then for his wife's disappearance years ago! They're not exactly well-rounded, but they are given enough screen time to develop their characters via performance, and as a result you're pulling for Rowan's relationship to work out, and the ex-cop dad feels like a real threat.

Tonally, The Radleys touches on a lot of vampire films. The teen romance of Twilight (2008) mixed with The Lost Boys' (1987) male bonding; the grounded suburban setting of Fright Night (1985) and the metaphorical lens of The Addition (1995). It's darkly funny at times, and steamy in parts, but since each family member has their own Vampire Movie going on, it can't quite commit to being any one thing. Nevertheless, the cheap and nasty thrills have an almost Lifetime Movie vibe at times, which is nothing if not crowd-pleasing.

The variety of tones and plot lines gives The Radleys a good chance to appeal to a wide segment of audiences, but also means most of those characters don't get a ton of time in the spotlight. When the closing credits rolled, I'd had a good time, but felt ever so slightly unsatisfied.