Ultraviolet (1998)

There are vampire stories to suit all tastes:  period, contemporary, scary, romantic, gothic, satirical, ad infinitum.  I'm by no means an indiscriminate consumer of vampire narratives - while I love me some Buffy, and Let the Right One In is spectacular, I've never been inclined toward the Anne Rice series, and Twilight is, well, Twilight.  The smart, gritty Ultraviolet, however, is decidedly cool.

This short-lived British TV show perhaps does more than any other story to modernize vampire mythos.  No beautifully tormented creatures of the night here; though their kind still spreads by the traditional blood-exchange-via-bite, the vampires (always called "leeches" or "code V's", never vampires) are another race occupying our society, albeit secretly.  They're largely concerned with their continued survival as a species, forever on the lookout for useful recruits and new methods of furthering their aims.

Generally, the leeches' movements  are kept to the shadows, but a small number of humans are aware of their existence.  When Michael, a young police officer, discovers leeches due to their involvement with a friend of his, he's brought into the folds of a covert operation that combats them.  Along with Pearse, a priest, Vaughan, ex-military, and Angie, a doctor, Michael starts to investigate leeches, but unlike his teammates, he's not entirely sure the situation is black and white.

It's a very different sort of take on a vampire tale.  Many of the old standbys are present - no reflection, death by sunlight, pile of ashes - and others are tweaked - graphite bullets in place of wooden stakes, a mostly superstitious aversion to religious icons.  From there, though, the plot branches off in new directions, as the leeches explore possible breakthroughs in creating synthetic blood, or spreading code V through a airborne pathogen.

Through it all, Michael is torn.  The others tell him the leeches are monsters that need to be destroyed, but the leeches he meets insist they're a race with dietary restrictions and a sunlight allergy trying to survive attempted genocide.  Who's to be trusted and who, if anyone, are the monsters?  It's an interesting ambiguity, and it plays out over the course of the far-too-short six episodes.

The cast is terrific.  Michael is well-played by Jack Davenport in a fairly early role, finding a good sweet spot between courageous and overwhelmed.  Phillip Quast brings keen but gentle insight to Pearse, Idris Elba (lately Heimdall in the Thor movies) is excellent as the guarded Vaughan, and Susannah Harker (Jane in the Ehle/Firth Pride and Prejudice) gives a quietly thoughtful performance as Angie.

Warnings

Thematic elements, sexual references (including an episode dealing with sexual abuse,) some drinking, and violence.