At one point during Take From Me, the enigmatic Elizabeth asks our dishevelled lead John “Are you addicted to death?” Horror and addiction have been bedfellows since the genre turned reflexive in the 60s and 70s. Perhaps the greatest of these is Ferrara’s The Addiction, a uniquely personal take on vampirism that pays as much attention to Lili Taylor’s increasingly disgusting rationalisations for her bloodlettings as the bloodlettings themselves. In blaming others for not being strong enough to withstand her attacks, she gives herself licence to continue her violence. For the unrepentant addict, other people are means to an end. Horror provides a metaphor for that manipulative dependency.
Take From Me explores such a dependency between a couple in a sleepy North Virginian hamlet. The man, John Harker, is a vagrant with an alarming tendency to drink himself into blackout. The woman, Elizabeth, is a frighteningly pale figure who never leaves the house before dusk, sleeps in a crate in the basement and seems to only have vials of red liquid in her fridge. No prizes for guessing what Elizabeth actually is, but the film never explicitly uses the word, so I shall refrain. It’s clearly an attempt by first-timer Eldredge to introduce some ambiguity into his film but the hints are so obvious that it makes you wonder why he didn’t just use the word; he wouldn’t be inviting one into his house if he had.
The film is best when it’s trying to avoid those trappings and focuses on the complicated relationship between John and Elizabeth, especially considering their mutual appetite for destruction. The ambiguity in their connection is well drawn out by Ethan McDowell and Kyla Diane Kennedy. McDowell, at points resembling a seedier Josh Hartnett, skulks around what appears to be his former home in a futile attempt to avoid his grief. He’s a raw wound next to Kennedy’s deep scar, where the anguish and rage at two hundreds of hunger is sublimated by a wry sense of humour. There’s something of Lilith Crane in her cadence, a pleasant dryness that undercuts the solemnity of John’s self-involvement. It doesn’t mask her own addiction to death, however, an addiction she has barely rationalised over her centuries of slaughter.
The middle section of the film, where John is gradually brought into Elizabeth’s world, has a human touch that can be missing from horror cinema. That’s largely thanks to the excellent performances by McDowell and Kennedy. Certainly, some of the interactions can feel a little clichéd, especially a scene where a substitute for Elizabeth’s need goes badly wrong. But there’s enough chemistry between them to make their flirtatious interactions touching and a little disturbing, especially when you feel John would happily commit suicide by supernatural creature. I also liked the presence of the local sheriff played by Dwayne Alistair Thomas, who functions as John’s conscience (and former AA sponsor) until his need to save his friend takes a tragic turn. Those three characters, and their excellent performers, give a thoughtful, low-key heart to this horror. When the blood effects do come they’re almost unwelcome, not just because they’re rather underwhelming but because they’re getting in the way of those interactions.
Take From Me is a handsomely shot film, too, Eldredge making excellent use of the natural woodland and the central farmhouse to give Take From Me a spooky ambiance that recalls the exceptional Let’s Scare Jessica to Death. Apparently shot for less than eighty thousand dollars, it has the polish of a film twice its budget, beautifully framed and with a dappled light that compliments the subtle quality of the drama. Horror here is not in shocks but in sadness, in the never-ending need to feed and use something, anything, to alleviate the pain at your core. It may stumble sometimes with on-the-nose dialogue about politics and a tendency towards formulaic backstories, but these are issues that can be ironed out in a writer. Eldredge’s ability with tone and coaxing good performances out of his cast are already evident.
TAKE FROM ME IS OUT NOW TO WATCH ON DIGITAL PLATFORMS
