‘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.
