Martin (John Amplas), a young man who looks around 20-years-old, boards a train in Indianapolis, Indiana for New York. At night, he breaks into a sleeping car and sedates a woman with a syringe full of narcotics. She struggles, but he tells her not to struggle or be upset because she wont feel pain. After a few minutes, the woman falls asleep, and Martin has sex with the unconscious woman. Afterwards, he slices her wrists with a razor blade so he can drink her blood. The woman bleeds to death in her sleep.
In the morning, the train stops in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania where Martin disembarks. He is met by Tata Cuda (Lincoln Maazel) an elderly and hostile old man who claims to be his cousin from the Old World. Together, they travel by another train to the town of Braddock, a dying industrial suburb. They walk to Cuda's large house where he shows Martin his living quarters. Cuda then accuses Martin of being an 84-year-old vampire from his old country. He has taken in Martin because he is family, but tells him, "First I will save your soul. Then I shall destroy you." Martin denies being a vampire and implies that Cuda is merely his uncle rather than his cousin. Cuda then puts up strings of garlic on the doors to his and his granddaughter's room, and then holds up a small cross when Martin approaches him. Martin takes away the cross, and even takes a bite of the garlic mocking these attempts by saying bitterly, "There's no real magic... ever". Cuda tells Martin that he can come and go as he pleases. But he also warns Martin that he will kill him if he kills anyone in Braddock. He also tells Martin to stay away from his granddaughter Christine (Christine Forrest), whom arrives home from her job that evening.
Cuda introduces Christine to Martin, but also warns her to stay away from him. But Christine instead strikes up a friendship with Martin who confides in her about his vampire heritage. When Cuda later confirms Martin's claims to be a vampire, Christine, not surprisingly, refuses to believe either one. She thinks that Cuda and the other members of her family have driven Martin to insanity by making him think that he is a vampire. It is never revealed if Martin really is a vampire, or just a shy and lonely youth with troubled issues. Christine is the only person that Martin gets the courage to talk to. When Christine's boyfriend Arthur (Tom Savini) arrives at the house for dinner, Martin stops talking and backs away despite Arthur's attempt at a conversation. Christine later confides in Martin that she hopes to leave Braddock someday with Arthur, even though Martin points out that Arthur treats her badly and is both verbally and physically abusive towards her.
When Christine sees that Martin won't talk to anyone else, she buys him a phone which he installs in his room. Martin begins to repeatingly call a radio talk show where he describes what it's like to be a vampire. He becomes known on the radio as "the Count" to all the listeners. But the patronizing host (Michael Gornick) thinks he's just crazy.
Martin gets a job at Cuda's grocery store of stocking shelves, hauling boxes around, and even gets to be a delivery boy for some of the customers. One of his customers is a certain Abby Santini (Elyane Nadeau), who becomes taken in with Martin. She is a very friendly young woman who is depressed when she tells Martin that her husband is unfaithful. But Martin still does not have the nerve to talk with her, so she is happy to have someone to confide in with her life problems. Martin phones the radio show host to describe his infatuation with the housewife and senses that she wants to have sex with him. When the radio show host asks Martin if it is a sexual problem that he has involving women criticizing him during sex, Martin replies that he has never had sex with a woman who was awake.
One day, Martin travels by train to outside Braddock to look for victims. At a supermarket, he follows a young woman (Sarah Venable) home to her posh suburban house. He sees the woman's husband (Richard Rubenstein) leave for a long business trip, and Martin decides this would be the right time for more feeding. Martin returns to the house after dark and breaks in through the garage door. But it is Martin who gets the surprise when he bursts into her bedroom to find her in bed with her adulterous lover Lewis (Al Levitsky). After a vicious struggle, Martin jabs both of them with hyprodermic needles with narcotics, and waits for the drugs to take affect. He drags the unconscious body of Lewis from the house to a clump of trees across the street where he kills him by shoving a broken tree branch into his neck and drinks his blood. Martin returns to the house where he has sex with the unconscious woman. But out of compassion and pity, he decides to let her live.
Martin begins to have romantic monochrome visions of his vampire past (real or imagined), where he drained blood from a young woman and was chased through the streets of a nameless European town by a torch-lit mob.
During one Sunday at church, Cuda brings home Father Howard (George A. Romero) who asks him about the possibility of exorcism and demon possession. Father Howard calls upon the elderly Father Zulemans (Clifford Forrest, Jr.) over at Cuda's request. Together, Cuda and Zulemans confront Martin his bedroom and attempt to perform an exorcism on him. At this point, Martin remembers (another real or imaginary flashback), in the Old Country of people trying to perform an exorcism on him, and he flees them. Martin then flees from Cuda and Zuelmas as well. A little later that night, Martin terrorizes Cuda in a children's playground when he puts on a Dracula cape and puts false fangs into his mouth to pretend that he really is a vampire.
One day, Martin finally musters the courage to talk with Mrs. Santini during a routine delivery to her house where he tells her that he's aware of her attempts to seduce him and wants now to have sex with her. After having sex for the first time, Mrs. Santini becomes more depressed for she tells Martin that her husband just left her because she discovered that she cannot bear children, and that her desires towards him are based on sex and nothing else. But Martin wants to stay with her and help her move on with her life. Martin tells the radio show host about his affair with the housewife and that he no longer has the urge to attack other women.
Meanwhile, Arthur meets with Cuda and tells him that he wants Christine to leave town with him so they can get married and start a family. But Christine becomes angry at Cuda when he tells Arthur that insanity runs in their family and he shouldn't consider having children with her. Shortly afterwards, Christine packs up and leaves Braddock for New York with Arthur despite Martin telling her that Arthur is abusive towards her. But her mind is made up. Before leaving, Christine tells Martin that she really has no ill feelings towards him and just wants to make a fresh start with her life. She says goodbye to him and promises to write. But Martin knows that with an abusive and possessive man in Christine's life, she probably won't.
Depressed over losing his one true friend, Martin phones the radio show host and tells him that he's getting "shaky" and wants to go out looking for more victims. That night, Martin travels to a rough crime-ridden area of Pittsburgh and attacks two derelicts in a alley, injecting them with narcotics. He kills one of them by silting the bum's wrist and drinking his blood. Martin is about to kill the second one when a police car shows up and gives chase. Martin narrowly escapes during a long chase on foot which leads from the garbage strew streets and through a local store. Martin runs into an old warehouse where a drug deal is going down. A shootout between the two cops and the three thugs begins where all of them are killed, leaving Martin as the sole survivor who casually walks away from the carnage.
One day, Martin finds Mrs. Santini dead in her bathtub, after she had slit her writs with a razor blade. Martin anonymously calls the police to report the body and leaves. He phones the radio show host one final time to say that he really doesn't need friends or people to talk to for he is his own person. But when Cuda learns about Mrs. Santini's suicide, is mistakenly thinks Martin killed her and made it look like a suicide as he's done before. Cuda walks into Martin's room while he is asleep and kills him by hammering a wooden stake through Martin's heart.
Cuda buries Martin's body in his back garden, while over the closing credits various voices from people are heard talking to the radio show host asking the whereabouts of "the Count".
这个故事走向太成迷了，仿佛前面关于疫情和展现惊悚气氛的部分像硬加的，因为并不是主要探讨疫情对人的影响，时效性显得很多余，母女关系对调那场戏好，再就是陈主任喊倒车有趣，其他再无亮点了
基本保持了阳光普照的水平，虽然不再那么有戏剧张力了。整个故事基本围绕两个女性来拍，非常细腻动人，把一个单亲家庭的种种都表现出来了，视听语言极为娴熟。是目前最好的以疫情背景的华语电影。结尾很像蓝白红之红。
疫情背景之下聚焦于家庭关系。房屋外因做防水工程而贴的蓝色帆布，使家中有了冷（暗）与暖（明）的二个空间。工程结束蓝布得以摘除，母女之间的关系也得到了缓和。离婚失去另一半，工资被减薪，母亲得了精神疾病，道出听到瀑布的声音。瀑布落下，即是一种下坠、坠落的过程。下坠到平地而又得到缓冲，结尾就是给我这样一种感觉，平和安详的。
母亲沉重的心结，仿佛湍流的瀑布，在耳边嗡嗡作响，无力摆脱；
故事没问题。只是导演导得有点诡异，北京话说就是“晃范儿”，不过这诡异的劲头一直绷着没懈，所以硬说是风格也行。现代版《活着》吧。
一个阳光普照 一个暗无天日
#venezia78 哎，90分钟不香吗？非要墨迹两个多小时，墨迹到后来把所有缺点都墨迹出来了，桑心。上半部分很不错，下半部分越往后越大型车祸现场，桑心。整体上还是有可贵之处。
我喜欢钟孟宏拍的所有电影。这次是新冠疫情背景下单亲家庭母女。生活不易长期压抑的情绪最终会变为洪水席卷一切。城市中产的崩溃就在一瞬间。叛逆的女儿一夜之间成熟到令人心疼。希望贾静雯可以拿今年金马影后。
呃。思觉失调之后就变得拖沓无聊了。即便一条蛇和瀑布都具像化地出现了，依然无聊。
剧情真是一波三折。叛逆少女、单亲家庭、失业危机、精神疾病、家境陡落……还有最后的意外事件，前半段抑郁，后半段柳暗花明，最后又差点再跌落谷底，但我不觉得这是个故事，这是真实的生活。两位女性主演很赞，状态都拿捏的准确。我们都有自己也未必预料的那么坚强，这是生命寻找出口的原始张力。
隔绝台风暴雨
一个比较贵誉的作品，整体故事和表达都有些用力过猛了。虽然和阳光普照一样，都是日常生活和抓马的碎点，但这一部很不浑然天成，主要是贾静雯的我表现看似不演其实非常的演，反倒是王净更自然更有灵性。其他台片还都没看。很期待有个横向比较。
疫情的缘故融入在影片中的口罩与蓝色帷布交相辉映，疏离感油然而生。大楼远处看来浪漫柔情，身在其中的人却压抑难耐。很自然地想到阳光普照中阿和在狱中的蓝色背景特写与绿色房间。强烈的红色和蓝色一样让人忍不住想流泪，母亲幻想在照顾女儿的情景完全翻转让人始料未及。小静坚毅勇敢开始学着理解母亲，开门驱赶卫兵、和母亲共同讨伐乱缠的顾客、拨打119上门捉蛇。场景补足了台词的细腻，镜头语言冷冽清凛。两位女性深刻浓烈的表达了亲子关系很好的诠释了家庭的距离感，虽然笨拙但是好喜欢啊。
一个阳光普照 一个暗无天日
去年最好的华语片，第一次感受到钟孟宏拍出了好电影。视听象征有设计感，但在对思觉失调的病人与家人关系的诚挚观察里发挥起妥帖的点题作用。贾静雯最先在臆想里的暴风雨犯病，最终在目睹女儿从一场水灾解救走出而完成治愈，从疫情到水灾，前后都以突如其来的方式袭击生活，神结尾。即便屋外的蓝色帷幕“口罩”摘落后，贾静雯的病情逐渐好转，叙事在阶级跌落和病人的好坏未知中，还是处于一种不确定性走向，这正是好电影需要的不确定性品质。
情节走向出乎意料，惊悚变温情。中介那场戏出乎意料，用演员感觉造成落差，值得学习。
钟孟宏对于情绪细节的刻画一直很出色，被生活暴击的母女俩最后虽然淋成落汤鸡但终于平安归来。电影表达了不少理想化的善意，一个快速成长的女儿，一个好老板，一群善意的同事，一个仗义的中介，莫非钟导实在传递互助的正能量？anyway看着挺舒服的，还不乏有趣小段落，比如那个被打头的啰嗦阿伯。
我想这是一部核心关于自我成长的故事，但是自我成长不仅离不开自我，更离不开周遭，可我们处理周遭和处理自我时总不免会迷失、不知所措和失去方向，然后生活也变得混乱和飘摇。具体的感想还需要整理。不得不说这是一部非常非常难拍的电影，然而表演、摄影等各个方面都呈现了很高的水准。尤其要说的是贾静雯很勇敢，这个角色真的很难演。剧情和表演在影片的最后一刻，电视画面和演员脸部特写切换中到达极致，表演整体可以说是“丝丝入扣”，给贾静雯一个大大的赞！总体来说，演员功力相较于角色的难度来说稍稍显弱，但是他们很努力，所以有了意外惊人的效果。我们没有人可以老练的面对生活的一切，演员、角色与观者一同在成长。觉得瀑布在各个方面似乎都会阳光普照更好，更真实、却又更明了。在这部电影里，人们似乎可以找到阳光普照里没有找到的答案。
在隱喻的層面做得還不夠極致，在日常生活的表現又過於呆板，可惜了一個很好的大背景下書寫家庭小故事的文本，究其原因是沒有完整統一的美學風格，大白話翻譯過來就是：沒想明白最終想要的是什麼。
前面真的是惊悚片。很吓人。结尾又很吓人，感觉以为女儿死了。还好没死，又给人一些温暖。
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