Well, that escalated quickly.
Valentine’s Day’s going to suck for Vampire Academy fans, as that’s the day the feature adaptation of the first novel in Richelle Mead’s vampire series arrives in theaters. The above clip debuted this week, giving us a glimpse of the angsty turmoil brewing at St. Vladimir’s Academy, a school where vampires and vampire-protectors deal with adolescence on a whole new, blood-sucking level. A level where sometimes catty girls get punched in the face at the school dance.
Via MTV, the clip above shows Mia Rinaldi (Sami Gayle) confronting fellow Moroi vampire Lissa (Lucy Fry) about some rumors involving a baby and herpes. Lissa can’t take it and skulks off, while her love interest Christian (Dominic Sherwood) and her BFF Rose (Zoey Deutch) come to her defense. This leads to Rose socking Mia in the face, but before that, Christian and Mia reference their special powers. As Moroi vampires, each of them has some special gift connected to the elements. Mia’s is water, while Christian’s is fire. That seems like it would be kind of a quick fight if the two were actually going to throw down.
Let’s backtrack though, for those who were barely able to keep up with that clip — it moved really fast, didn’t it? — Vampire Academy centers at a high school for Moroi vampires and Dhampirs in training. The former are peaceful human-ish vampires that age, can reproduce and though they drink blood and suffer from light sensitivity, they have consciences and aren’t running around sucking humans dry. That’s one of the main things that differentiates them from the evil Strigoi vampires — the ageless, sun-allergic bloodsuckers who are as much a threat to the Moroi as they are to people. That’s where the Dhampirs come in, as they’re half-human/half-vampire people with extraordinary strength and in some cases, a willingness to use that strength to protect the Moroi.
Rose — the one that punched Mia — is a Dhampir, and she’s really protective of Lissa, her Moroi friend and the the vampire she’s training hard to protect. Lissa, as you can see, has little tolerance for drama and confrontation, but I’m thinking that clip took place after something major happened, which may be responsible for her bad mood. Perhaps the something that stirred up whatever ridiculous rumors Mia’s gleefully spreading. See, Lissa’s got a secret, and it’s one that someone maybe trying to expose.
Between Daniel Waters’ (Heathers) involvement as screenwriter and his brother Mark Waters’ (Mean Girls) involvement as director, I’m hopeful that Vampire Academy will prove to be another great high school flick, with a vampire twist. We’ll have to wait and see how the finished product looks when the film arrives in theaters next month. In the meantime, here’s the previously released trailer:
