DIRECTOR Neil Jordan is no stranger to bloodsuckers. Didn’t he get Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt necking in Interview With A Vampire two decades ago? That was long before the Twilight saga caused a rush of blood to the cinematic vampire industry that made Dracula’s fanged attacks look anaemic.

Thankfully, Byzantium – adapted by Moira Buffoni from her stage play – is not another tale of teenage vamps, although the story is centred on a young woman Eleanor (Saoirse Ronan) who’s trying to adjust to her bloodlust.

She lives in a rundown seaside resort with her mother Clara (Gemma Arterton) who earns a crust by lap dancing and prostitution, although she often uses the opportunity to sate her bloodlust.

In flashbacks, we discover how Clara was bitten by the vampire bug after being used and abused back in the 19th century by Jonny Lee Miller’s randy captain. But she’s trying hard to reform her ways in the modern day, although her grudge against men causes her to turn violent (just ask the chap who has his head garroted off like cheese wire through butter).

The pair strike lucky when Daniel Mays’ lonely chap offers them a place in his rundown guest house, which proves ideal for Clara to ‘entertain’ her clients in a sort of vampire bordello. Meanwhile Eleanor, an eternal schoolgirl, gets chummy with a young waiter (Caleb Landry Jones) with leukaemia.

The peace is shattered by a figure from Clara’s past, the evil Darvell (Sam Riley), who’s set to cause trouble in the present.

Byzantium is a downbeat, some might say lethargic, film that tries hard to move away from formulaic vampire movies, but ends up – Arterton’s lap dance excluded –being a wee bit dull. But at least Eleanor is one teenage vampire who doesn’t moon around with an angst-ridden expression.