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*This review contains minor spoilers.
The Radleys is a new family drama featuring the titular Radleys who are all vampires - the parents, and their two teenaged children. However, they have decided to not use their vampire powers (or afflictions depending on your viewpoint). They instead choose to live as this wholesome white-picket-fence, down-to-earth family of four in their cookie cutter neighborhood. When the daughter, Clara (played by Bo Bragason) lets her emotions get the best of her, and she kills one of the neighborhood teenagers, the family is thrust into cleanup mode which will require some of their vampire traits to come out. But, when they invite the Dad's twin brother (both played brilliantly by Damien Lewis) to come and help out, things spiral out of control and their vampire selves hang out a bit longer than anticipated.
The Radleys incorporates both traditional vampire lore, as well as some unexplained "new" traits such as they just exist in the daylight with no pain or injuries sustained. Even though this threw me off a bit, I kind of liked the filmmakers not even mentioning it, it's just a thing that happens and you have to accept it. No need to over explain it, or add a bunch of glitter (sorry Twilight fans). The movie does begin as a pretty enthralling character-driven family story with the vampire stuff acting more as a trivial plot point. But, as it goes on it does lose steam, generally around the same time that it gets away from the exploration of the characters and focuses more on the contrivances of the vampire lore and aesthetic. As I said, I didn't need a lot of "hey remember these folks are vampires so here is this!" stuff. I would have much more enjoyed it if it had kept its original pacing of focusing on the family first. I kept getting the itching suspicion that The Radleys would have been more to my liking had it been a mini-series of even a full-blown TV-MA television or streaming series. If they could do it for 7 seasons for 'True Blood' - then why not?
What really carried my affinity of this film though, were the characters and performances - most notably those of Kelly MacDonald ('Boardwalk Empire') and Damien Lewis ('Homeland'). They are putting on an acting clinic in this one, portraying the parental figures who are seemingly bored and trapped in their current daily routines as a family man/woman. This also gives us our symbolism in the film, as in they feel trapped because they are hiding their vampire-ness, but a lot of parents just feel trapped anyway because nothing really matters but the family dynamic and getting the kids to soccer practice on time, figuring out what's for dinner...again, etc. Lewis was particularly enthralling as he plays two characters in the twin brothers. His family-forward Dad is very stoic and ordinary, and his Uncle Peter is a wild man with a rebel-without-a-cause vibe. He was often hilarious and very charming in both roles. I also quite enjoyed newcomers Bo Bragason (Censor) and Harry Baxendale (Holmes & Watson) as our two teenage children.
At the end of the day (or night) - it just felt like The Radleys started as one thing, but then scrapped it and decided to be something else. Which is fine, I suppose, just unfortunate for me, I preferred the original path as opposed to what we ended up with. I am recommending the movie as I feel it is a pretty good entry into the modern-day vampire canon, and to be honest I will never not recommend anything Kelly MacDonald is in - and as I've said she is fantastic in this too. Give it a go - it doesn't fully suck.
🍿 SCORE = 67 / 100
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