Humans massacred their race and forced them out of history and into the shadows. Elric (Bryan Ferriter) escapes into the mountains following his release from a dark cell  where he'd been sent for the unspeakable crime of falling in love with a human. He finds himself in the new America in the midst of a vampire civil war and a longstanding clash between hunters and vampires.

This is not Twilight. This is also not Only Lovers Left Alive, though if it were leaning anywhere within the realm of vampire flicks it would likely be a distant cousin to Jarmusch's masterful and captivating film.

Crimson Winter would have likely come off as a stronger film, in fact, if not for the fact that it does come on the heels of Jarmusch's quirky, intelligent and immensely moving film. This film, billed as a Shakespearean vampire tragedy, is written and directed by Ferriter and does a decent enough job of setting its tone that fans of indie cinema will likely find moments to enjoy here despite the fact that the film itself at times dilutes itself and, I'm guessing unintentionally, takes on an almost campy B-movie feel that is neither Shakespearean nor tragic in tone.

In fact, it's rather funny.

It's not that the film is bad. It's actually not. It's one of those unique films that is immensely hard to describe and even harder to market accurately. There are those who would likely describe it as Twilight meets Uwe Boll and, strangely enough, they'd probably mean it as a compliment.

The film benefits from Ferriter's presence because, It would appear, that Ferriter himself actually gets the artistic vision that he's going for here and his performance shows it. The other performances are for the most part rather hit-and-miss and, unfortunately, sometimes they are really, really miss.

Crimson Winter was only recently completed and is just beginning its festival run with its most likely prospects existing among the ultra-indie and underground film fests where audiences are more in touch with a filmmaker's artistic vision than they are concerned with any notion of cinematic perfection.

For more information on Crimson Winter, visit the film's website linked to in the credits on the left of this review.

© Written by Richard Propes 
The Independent Critic