Films You Need to See: ALL THE MOONS

Can a vampire film be beautiful? This one is.

I signed up for a free trial of SHUDDER, mainly so I could watch Phil Tippett’s 30-years-in-the-making stop-motion masterpiece MAD GOD (which is a masterpiece, by the way) and this vampire film called ALL THE MOONS. (I recommend both for different reasons, but Mad God requires a tolerance for dark & disturbing imagery which may not be for general audiences. Definitely not for kids.)

All the Moons, on the other hand, is not the vampire film I was expecting.

The film is set in 1876 Spain at the end of the third Carlist war, and an orphaned girl who survives a church bombing is given eternal life by a mysterious woman who adopts her into a tribe of vampires. Directed by Igor Legarreta, the film is entirely in the Basque language of Northern Spain.

You won’t find any coffins, bats, or castles in this story (and definitely no sparkling) and not even any fangs. There is very little blood or violence, and what little feeding there is takes place mostly off-camera or in the shadows. Instead, you will find a very human and life-affirming drama about love and family with awe-inspiring cinematography and a magnetic performance by the lovely young actress Haizea Carneros as the vampiric protagonist. Her face says so much with so little, and she completely lives in her character through the full gamut of emotions she endures.

The film moves at a glacial pace, allowing us to soak in the textures of forests, caves, and rain puddles, and the vibrant faces of its actors. The composition and lighting in many shots invokes paintings by Vermeer or Rembrandt. It utilizes religious imagery and metaphors like juxtaposing the vampire’s drinking of blood with the Eucharist, which is nothing new, but it also turns traditional vampire lore and tropes on their head in a manner that has much in common with films like NEAR DARK.

But I shan’t spoil things, except to say I love it, and that it’s risen to a place among my favorite vampire films, sharing the same vibes and atmosphere as A GIRL WALKS HOME ALONE AT NIGHT and LET THE RIGHT ONE IN. By dove-tailing the end of its narrative into the Spanish Civil War, you could even pair it in a double-feature with PAN’S LABYRINTH, as it shares the same themes of sacrificial love and otherworldly musings on the afterlife.

All the Moons hardly belongs exclusively on SHUDDER to begin with, alongside its selection of blood, gore, and creature features. It deserves to be more readily available to the movie-going public, and I hope it finds its way off streaming to a proper Blu-Ray release to do justice to its gorgeous imagery, which is truly stunning.

But until that happens, it’s worth subscribing just to sink your teeth into this one.

For a limited time, you can extend your free trial to 30 days using the Tippett Studio’s Promo Code.