The Radleys Movie Review – A Dull Vampire Horror Comedy With No Bite

On the surface, The Radleys holds all the potential in the world to be a standout horror comedy. Based on Matt Haig’s novel, directed by Euros Lyn who helmed episodes of His Dark Materials, Daredevil, and Doctor Who, and starring Damien Lewis and Kelly Macdonald, this contains all the right ingredients to be a bloody good cocktail of entertainment. Yet, despite everything in its favour, the film turns into an absolute snoozefest that fails to get out of first gear.

The Radleys centres around the Radley family – Peter (Lewis), Helen (Macdonald) and their two children, Rowan (Harry Baxendale) and Clara (Bo Bragason). After an incident, Peter and Helen need to come clean to their children about what they are: Vampires. However, they are abstaining bloodsuckers – choosing a life of normality rather than sinking teeth into victims. In an effort to help their children understand what they are, they enlist the help of Peter’s twin brother, Will (Lewis), whose rebellious streak and penchant for trouble wreaks havoc in their home.

This vampire story lacks any real bite

It’s easy to see what Euros Lyn’s aims to do with The Radleys. Talitha Stevenson and Jo Brand’s script tries to create a link between dealing with vampirism as well as other issues the family experiences – from coming of age to marital woes and addiction. It’s a metaphor but it’s also not, if that makes sense, trying to unpack all the Radley drama that hasn’t been addressed for far too long.

Unfortunately, the film plods along for 112 minutes with a mishmash of too many themes and too little interest, when it could have had an easy 30 minutes shaved off to make the story tighter and keep the audience’s attention. This drags at a snail’s pace, lacking exciting scenes or riveting interactions between characters. It also doesn’t help that Lyn tries to capture the ordinary nature of suburbia in the cinematography as a means of hiding what’s lurking underneath the surface, but the juxtaposition falls flat on its face here. Instead, the scenes come across as dull and uninspired. 

At times, one can’t help but be reminded of Netflix’s ill-fated October Faction show, which is based off Steve Niles and Damien Worm’s fantastic comic book series. Much like The Radleys, there are moments of quirk, but every episode stretched out longer than it needed to and featured some of the most unimaginative scenes committed to film. By the end of it, nearly everyone wondered: “What was the point of this?”

Damien Lewis and Kelly Macdonald show up, even if they never shine

The cast do what they can with the material, with the most interesting subplot being how Rowan and Clara both pine for the same person, Evan (Jay Lyrcurgo). Perhaps this should have been the core of the film and not relegated to a secondary or tertiary afterthought. Damien Lewis does double duty as both Peter and Will – with arguably the latter being the tastiest part – while Kelly Macdonald peels back the layers to show Helen has played second fiddle to everyone else for too long in her life.

Despite the cast’s performance, the clumsy nature of the film never allows them to fully shine or create a noteworthy impact. In this instance, it’s a serious case of less would have been more in the grand context of The Radleys.

Is The Radleys worth watching?

It’s difficult to recommend The Radleys since it’s something of a non-event. The premise of the film, as well as the trailer, looked exciting, but the execution leaves a lot to be desired. This film should have bared its teeth from the start; instead, it simply shows its belly.

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