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".
是同性……还是腹黑？兄弟同床，家庭孤寂，夫妻疏离……感觉讲了很多，又感觉什么都讲了一半，每一次转折都很想去理解，但理解到一半又会被刻意的设计劝退。
这明明是一个心机母子混入大宅门儿，全家人一个接一个神秘死亡的犯罪悬疑片的序幕啊，硬给抻成一部长片，给反派一个深柜恐同男性气概的设定，就可以政治正确地抨击男权，然后拿去哄评委混奖项了，但也太刻意，太生硬了……这几年三大奖的得奖片都已经一点儿意思也没有了，完全是创作者和评委们拿政治正确互相PUA，想说看看只入围没得奖的吧，敢情更差，一样的PUA手段，只不过做得太过，失手了，只能去拿奥斯卡😅。但卷福真心好，给加颗星吧。
爱比死更冷。
颁奖季第一片，因为对Dunst的这个表演很有兴趣就先看了，Campion虽然久负盛名但这是第一次看她导演的片子。
在电影院看的。睡了三十分钟。虐女人虐烦了，又虐女人的儿子。
看完之后细思极恐，70多分钟的铺垫。最后出乎意料，因为没看剧透我还一直以为会有什么小叔子爱上自己儿子的情节。结果越看越不对劲，想着标签也没贴恐怖，惊悚啥的。可是看完以后，我觉得需要加个惊悚的标签，这简直就是一场精心谋划的温柔的杀戮，不要惹医学生啊，能有一百种合理让你死的方法。bgm不错，听出惊悚的味道了，听说本尼为了拍这个一个礼拜不洗澡也是蛮厉害的。
决定生成一个概念：威尼斯-金球-奥斯卡主义——无依之地、小丑、罗马…还有这部。不是伤痕的，切肤的电影（尽管它尝试在表现这些），而是皮毛的，表象的，没有地形只有景色的电影。坎皮恩给电影造了个窗口，躲在暗处的却又是全知的一角窥视着，Phil无论往身上涂多少污泥他都是干净的，因为电影早就没有了秘密。一切都太安全了，看看阿诺德的《呼啸山庄》吧。
强悍，也许是软弱的伪装；软弱，也许是另一种强悍。天地不仁，以万物为刍狗。像恶犬一样互相撕咬的人们，其实无所谓好坏，悲剧的只是，他们的欲望彼此冲撞。
用力过猛。全程铺垫暗示，节奏慢到睡着。Greenwood老师真的很适合做这种暗涌张力电影的配乐
导演沉迷情怀小样，毫不关心踪迹大纲。通篇只觉无味无趣无聊无感。
那座山丘，我是一点儿看不出哪里像狗。
大概是因为看的时候没有完全沉下心来，没有从阴暗的视角去期待情节的发展，所以并没有完全理解甚至有点迷惑。如果一部影片晦涩到了影响理解的程度，那观赏性必然会打折扣。如果再看第二遍，或许会打到四星甚至五星，但好的影片不应该有过高的、人为的门槛。
还是钢琴课的简导，永远可以相信她！选角是一绝，那段纸花的古钢琴旋律可以超过the heart asks pleasure first了，刚柔并济，情色内敛化了内核却更张扬。就是这部片上网飞吃亏，受众是广了吧，网飞的格调实在配不上…
感觉导演对力量（权利）做了卡通化的处理。一个强大但脆弱的王者和一个脆弱但凶残的刺客。导演嘲讽的是“男性气概”吗？这么说感觉有点粗鄙，但似乎潜意识是这样。
女导演的细腻柔韧见微知著无形中加深了这部片子的力量感，故事背景、发生区域都非常男性化，通过不露声色的艺术观对抗，游牧生活的点滴，男性压倒女性，直男压倒“娘炮”的共通世界。片子全程没有什么过激情节却处处透着情欲和张力，调度很厉害。
墨迹了一个半小时就为了电光火石间捅出一刀，敢这么拍类型片，有魄力
克制又残忍，看完有种心头一凉的感觉。但是不理解母亲到底遭受了什么样的待遇，她自己的堕落和不堪为什么都要归咎于别人？
一部极致克制的电影 一部需要静下心来数次屏住呼吸看得电影 配乐 运镜构图真的超赞 整体细腻的描述这个男权 母爱 权利 情感的种种激烈碰撞 那么浓烈缠绵同时却又单纯决绝 每一个人物都很丰满 演员太棒了 克斯汀•邓斯特的演绎真的很赞 逐渐崩溃绝望 她的惶恐及那摇摇欲坠的破碎感很棒 有几次我都觉得呼吸停滞了 卷福我甚至觉得他就是Phil 那个纯情又刻薄 脆弱而孤独 压抑却充满性张力的矛盾的男人 当他第一次脱下牛仔扮相时那种脆弱感 而他身上的破碎感也很 而Peter的残忍冷血 你以为他是猎物 其实他才是猎人 对于Phil的示好仿佛是种怜悯 这种气质疯批病娇气质真勾人啊 而这种残忍也恰恰是种脆弱 整部剧充斥着一种特别的强烈的残酷美令人心醉 而Phil对Bronco的感情真的是令我心碎啊 细节满满的片子
本片建立在極其緩慢的節奏上，人物刻畫手段簡潔省略，敘事觀點不斷變化，最關鍵的細節往往隱藏在不起眼的畫面。編導用作為女導演的細膩和敏銳角度，極力扭轉西部片中的牛仔，策馬，槍戰以及野外搏殺等男性荷爾蒙的元素，而是用欲言又止，省略前情的方式來迴避情節上流露的戲劇性，用配樂以及攝影來增強氛圍感，頗有一種懸疑片的味道，通過象徵性的物件以及行為動作不動聲色挖掘出每個角色的心理狀態。該片更是大膽顛覆了西部片的男子氣概的觀念，侄子的精心計劃不僅是為母復仇，還有對整個父權制度的挑戰，這種父權制度不僅壓抑了男主角的同性戀自由和慾望，還壓抑了女性難以享有和男性的平等和幸福。從這點看來，本片雖然是西部時代的故事，但仍然有一定的現實反思。
沉重而悲伤，菲尔看不到出路的人生，毁灭于执迷。片子能把这样一个“恶人”塑造得让人同情，很厉害。
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