The Radleys (2024)

Plot of the Radleys: The Radley family live in Whitby. Peter is a doctor, Helen works in charity and they have two children Clara and Rowan. They have a secret, they are vampires who have become abstainers, giving up being active blood suckers, and the children also vampires are unaware of their heritage. (Vampire rules in this reality – if they stop being active they lose vampire capabilities, being super strong, having hypnotic capabilities. They can be seen in photos and in mirrors. New vampires are created when humans are bitten but also drink vampire blood). When Clara is attacked by a young man with sexual intent, her vampire capabilities emerge and she kills him and sucks his blood.  The family are alerted and recover her and the body, and the children learn what they are. Peter and Helen decide to call Peter’s twin brother Will, who is an active vampire. Will takes over, controls the police investigation and gets rid of the body. But his presence causes problems for everybody. He has some control over Helen, aggravating the couple’s marital problems and encourages the children to be active. Lorna, a friend, has designs on Peter. How can it all end?

Content: No sex or nudity, a bit of drinking at parties and in Will’s motor home. A lot of drinking of blood by various people. Peter has taken samples of Lorna’s blood and instead of sending them away drinks them. There are negative interactions between  Peter and Helen. The children are angry when they find out what they are. Rowan seems to have a crush on one of his mixed race male friends, but is shy and inactive until he drinks some blood allowing his more charismatic vampire personality to emerge. A neighbour, Jared, Rowan’s friend’s father is obsessed by the possibility that there are vampires everywhere, but gives up the idea until his son is bitten.

A View: This is a straight to video film for Sky TV. The fun part is to see Damian Lewis, probably best known as Nicholas Brody in Homeland and Henry VIII in Wolf  Hall, as Peter and as Will two completely opposite characters. Other than that it rolls along pretty well, although as usual, police intervention seems to be sadly lacking. Even though a young man is missing, his body parts having been thrown into the sea by Will, the only investigation is by two female PCs who are easily dealt with. You could have it on for nothing while doing something else, but don’t invest in Sky specially to see it.

Fun Fact: Although it is never mentioned the Radleys live in Whitby, the landing place for Count Dracula in Bram Stoker’s novel.