Netflix has two means of recommending movies: one is to take a film and lump it into every possible conceivable genre (quirky visually-striking intellectual thrillers anyone?) and insist that I must watch this movie because I love this genre that was clearly generated by Netflix solely to bully me into watching this movie. For me, this movie is Santa Sangre. Netflix has wanted me to watch Sante Sangre for what seems like years. I did, and we'll discuss that later.
The other way Netflix recommends movies is to very rarely bring a film up, as if to say "oh. also this movie exists. I dunno. No one has watched it yet, but you know. It could be ok. You're probably not interested anyway as all you ever talk about is how much you want to see Santa Sangre."
Strigoi is one of the latter films, and precisely because Netflix's recommendation was so non-committal, I watched it.
I love this movie. It is the only vampire movie I think I've ever really loved.** It's what I want vampire movies to be, and it's precisely what they never are. Twilight would have us believe that vampires tell us about ourselves, about our desires and about what it means to belong to a community. Twilight sits on a throne of lies. Strigoi does those things, and it does so well. It's funny, it's incredibly sad, it is without a doubt the only time I have ever seen a vampire drink another's blood, and I felt it achieved something emotional and true.
This movie is touching and distressing and if I were to write a full list of adjectives to accurately describe it I would sound like Netflix.
Which leads me to question: What if Netflix is an entity so advanced in its knowledge of one area of information that it is an intelligence unto itself, and because of its incredibly nuanced love for film, can never be understood by others?
What if Netflix is the singularity, and the singularity is simply an awkward movie nerd?
Recommended genres for me today:
- Visually-striking Chinese Kung Fu Movies
- Gritty Crime Movies Based on a Book
- Independent Road Trip Dramas
- Quirky Buddy TV Comedies
These recommendations don't sound like they come from a computer. They sound a lot like the people I used to work with at the video store, talking to someone about something they just returned: a movie they grabbed off the new releases rack without much thought for its book adaptation or the cinematography of the fight scenes.
I don't remember the genre Netflix used to recommend Strigoi to me, but I'd like to think that my max-star rating has prompted Netflix to design a whole new genre of recommendations for me. Something about Soviet Russia that isn't set in Russia. Something about communities and the social devastation of a million quiet betrayals. Something about the impact of land ownership wars that are waged entirely in paperwork, without any family ever moving from their land, without anyone ever really knowing who truly owns what. Something about coming home to find your grandfather has been drinking your blood and living with him anyway.
**EDIT: There is one other vampire movie I love, and I also compared it to Twilight, which is horrifying.
[photo: Thomas Wolfe was wrong: you can go home again, and when you do, you'll finally achieve all that you couldn't face in med school.]
