Ambrogio: The First Vampire

Ambrogio is a very impressive achievement for a first-time feature-length director, writer, and crew. Coming in at about 1 hour and 10 minutes, it's a respectable length that doesn't try to go too high too quickly. Even with the small budget, the story and its implications carry greater weight and scope, and the effective location choices help lend the right amount of credibility to these elements.

I was also impressed by the unique take on the vampire mythos by taking things back to their furthest roots and developing a character whose origins lie in the birthplace of vampirism. That sort of ancient mythos and lore is always exciting in fiction and fantasy.

I think the most successful elements of Alex Javo's film are the actors (especially Mitch Lemos as Hades and Niko'a Salas as Dracula), the music, and the costuming.

My one critique for the film, given the subject matter, is I wish a darker lighting scheme and perhaps even color palette had been used to accentuate the macabe and gothic nature of our vampire characters, especially in Ambrogio's home. The use of high contrast or back-lit shots would have lent to showing us a creepier or more mysterious side to Ambrogio.

That said, I think Alex and the film greatly succeed in what they set out to do, and its praise and accolades from the indie film community are well deserved.