All The Moons finds beauty in the mundane, where not everything in a vampire’s life is that exciting. For this reason, the slow pacing is not for everyone.
WARNING: Mild Spoilers For All The Moons Ahead.
I love how the vampire genre has been evolving over the past few years. This is especially with films that begin to bend the classic lore. The ones that come to mind for me are films like Black as Night, a thoughtful film which incorporated elements of Hurricane Katrina into its story and changed some fundamental vamp rules (coming into places without permission).
There are other indie additions like Bite Me, a romantic comedy that depicts vampirism as a way of life and condition as a vamp falls in love with an IRS agent; or My Heart Can’t Beat Unless You Tell it To, a powerful drama about vampirism as a disease and a family’s dedication to the one afflicted.
The rules are forever evolving for vampire films. As well, it can span so many different genres, as All the Moons is mostly set in realistic drama and fantasy. Horror rarely rears its head, but when it does, it’s most notable in a great visual shot.
Much like My Heart Can’t Beat Unless You Tell it To, this film depicts the loneliness of being a vampire. Here, our hero Amaia (Haizea Carneros) first experiences profound loneliness as a human. At the beginning of the film, which is set in the North of Spain in 1876 at the end of the third Carlist War, we see her living in an orphanage. One night, along with the others, she’s hurried to the basement as war rages outside.
The nuns lead everyone in prayer, praying for safety; and as Amaia sees a painting of a girl being saved by an angel, a bomb strikes and the church collapses on them. Amaia is the only survivor of the collapse, and she’s found by a mysterious woman (Itziar Ituño), who comes and takes her away. Amaia needs a mother; and the aptly named Mother needs a daughter. As the woman turns Amaia into a vampire, their moments together are lovely.
Interrupting that is a mob from the town who fear what they don’t understand, as they raid their vampire lair. The pair get separated, and Amaia finds herself in a cave. In one of the film’s creative uses of visuals to show the passage of time, Amaia counts the days on the cave’s walls with suns that she has missed, instead of tallies. This is interesting as she thinks about what she’s missed, instead of how Mother told her about “all the moons” to anticipate.
All The Moons finds beauty in the mundane, where not everything in a vampire’s life is that exciting. We see some of the boring stuff, but a lot of the highlights and the important beats. The important lessons. For this reason, the slow pacing of Igor Legarreta’s film may not be for everyone.
For patient fans and fans of vampire films and seeing the beauty they can have, this one’s rewarding. As a film about loneliness, as Amaia goes from Mother to finding a widowed man named Candido (Josean Bengoetxea) by happenstance after how many moons, it establishes Amaia was meant to cross these paths. The film, first and foremost, is one that highlights the beauty of human connection.
Besides story, the film rewards with its visuals and by its filmmaking. Specifically, through filmmaker Igor Legarreta, cinematographer Imanol Nabea, as well as the film’s production designer whose name I could not find. All these parts work together so well, from some great, intimate shooting to just how gorgeous the 19th century looks here. Production design deserves a major kudos, as does the film’s score for complementing everything.
In performance, too, this is notable. Haizea Carneros, in her first role, is up to the task, capturing the youth and loneliness pre-vampire, to the maturity and retrospection as a vampire.
This is often a necessary aspect, and she nails it. Both matriarch Itziar Ituño and patriarch Josean Bengoetxea – vampire foster parents across time, in a way – are great in their respective roles, sometimes taking the lead in emotional scenes or letting Carneros take the reins, and each pairing truly works. As well, it’s fun to see Zorion Eguileor on-screen again as Father Sebastian. He commands the screen in his scenes, and after this and his turn as murderous roommate Trigasi in Netflix’s The Platform, I need to seek out more of him.
As far as vampire films that this feels reminiscent of, there are some Let The Right One In vibes at different times in the film as well as moments that might call to mind Interview with the Vampire.
It is its own beast, as well; haunting and lovely. It’s also a story about finding belonging for some amount of time, highlighted by a moment of Candido’s acceptance after he asks if she’s an angel or demon. “No demon is afraid,” Candido answers his own question after a few beats. “No demon has your smile.”
Rating: 3.5 out of 5
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About All The Moons
North of Spain, at the end of the 19th century, during the final throes of the last Carlist war, a little girl is rescued from an orphanage by a mysterious woman after it’s destroyed by a bomb. Wounded and close to death, the girl believes the woman is an angel coming to take her to Heaven. Soon, however, she discovers that this strange being has given her is the gift of eternal life by turning her into a vampire.
Directed by Basque filmmaker Igor Legarreta (When You No Longer Love Me), ALL THE MOONS won Best Director, Best Cinematography, and Audience Awards at the Fantasia International Film Festival.
ALL THE MOONS is now streaming on Shudder.
Daniel Prinn is a film critic and freelance writer from Canada. He loves most genres of film and especially horror but has a soft spot for films from the 2000’s. When he isn’t writing, he can be found podcasting, as he is a host for his own interview show called The Filmcraziest Show on YouTube and at his site Filmcraziest.com.