Manhattan Undying chronicles the short-lived romance of a terminally ill artist and the alluring vampire woman who commissions him to paint her portrait so that she can finally see herself.
It’s a great premise, but it’s woefully squandered here. I wish the movie would have spent more time allowing the two main characters to grow in their attraction to each other, because their romance never feels fully realized. The final scene tries so hard to sell the idea that the vampire doesn’t want to go on living in a world without the artist, and it’s not convincing in the slightest. And to add further insult to injury, we don’t even get to see the completed painting in the end!
This is far from the worst movie I’ve ever sat through, though. The highest compliment I can give it is that it boasts a hauntingly beautiful original score, which I genuinely wasn’t expecting to hear in a project as low-budget as this one. I really loved the music and it did help to elevate certain scenes a bit, but in the end, this is a pretty unremarkable addition to the vampire genre, beautifully boring in almost every way.
Manhattan Undying chronicles the short-lived romance of a terminally ill artist and the alluring vampire woman who commissions him to paint her portrait so that she can finally see herself.
It’s a great premise, but it’s woefully squandered here. I wish the movie would have spent more time allowing the two main characters to grow in their attraction to each other, because their romance never feels fully realized. The final scene tries so hard to sell the idea that the vampire doesn’t want to go on living in a world without the artist, and it’s not convincing in the slightest. And to add further insult to injury, we don’t even get to see the completed painting in the end!
This is far from the worst movie I’ve ever sat through, though. The highest compliment I can give it is that it boasts a hauntingly beautiful original score, which I genuinely wasn’t expecting to hear in a project as low-budget as this one. I really loved the music and it did help to elevate certain scenes a bit, but in the end, this is a pretty unremarkable addition to the vampire genre, beautifully boring in almost every way.
