Product Details

• Actors: Jack Davenport, Susannah Harker, Idris Elba, Philip Quast, Colette Brown
• Format: Box set, Color, NTSC
• Language: English
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Number of tapes: 2
• Studio: Palm Pictures / Umvd
• VHS Release Date: June 26, 2001
• Run Time: 320 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (79 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B00005KA8L
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #390,146 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

In the six-part British miniseries Ultraviolet, we discover that ultraviolet light is used (both in surgery and via high-tech weaponry) to identify people who have been infected with a disease labeled "Code V." It's transmitted via a bite to the neck, but at no point in the series is the word vampire used. Instead, in the second episode ("In Nomine Patris") the nickname "Leech" is introduced. We learn that it was this disease that was responsible for the fire of London, and that one in 20 people are already infected. In the opening episode, policeman Michael Colefield (Jack Davenport) is recruited into the secretive Complaints Investigation Bureau. He meets its introverted priest-chief Pearse (Philip Quast), the emotionally driven Dr. Angela March (Susannah Harker), and the bullish heavyweight Vaughan (Idris Elba). Spinning around Mike's suddenly complicated life are his best friend's jilted fiancée (Colette Brown) and an old flame (Fiona Dolman). In later hard-hitting episodes we see the stabbing murder of a teacher-priest by a 12-year-old boy ("Mea Culpa") and the capture of a Leech ("Persona Non Grata"). This intriguing series ends having tied together most of its threads, but dangles worrying implications at the viewer... not so much to suggest a sequel as to hammer home everything at stake. It played in America on the Sci Fi Channel. --Paul Tonks

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

61 of 65 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The British Know Vampires -- And How to Deal With Them, September 12, 2004

By 

C. Price "Layman, Lawyer, Blogger" (Southern California) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Ultraviolet (DVD)

For those who have not seen this movie, it is well worth the buy. Set in modern day London, a cop's partner is "turned" on the eve of his wedding. As he investigates his partner's failure to show and disappearance, he learns that vampires (or "leeches" as they are usually called -- the word vampire is never used) are real. He is then co-opted into a special government branch -- run by an ex Priest, a medical scientist, and a special forces operative -- that is hunting the vampires.

Are the vampires evil? Does religion really have anything to with them? Is the cross's effect on vampires merely psychosomatic or is there real power there? Is the special branch just a modern day version of the inquisition, oppressing the innocent?

It is to the show's credit that you do not really know the answers to all of these questions until the last episode, though clues are sprinkled about throughout.

This is the best vampire story I've ever encountered (book, movie, or series). Although shown occasionally on the Sci Fi channel, owning the DVD is well worth the price to see it for the first time.

For those who have seen the series on t.v., the DVD is still worthwhile. Though there is not much in the way of extras, the DVD version seemed much easier to understand (and not just because I had seen it before). The sound quality is very good. On the t.v. version the conversation was sometimes hard to follow because of the English accents. Not so with the DVD. Being able to follow the conversations more closely added a lot to my viewing pleasure.

Worth it.

40 of 41 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Current day twist on the ancient vampire myth..., January 22, 2002

By 

Scubafiend "scubafiend" (St. Petersburg, FL USA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Ultraviolet (DVD)

An elite group in the police department are pursuing modern day vampires. But they aren't running around killing vampires with wooden stakes. This British "miniseries" (6 episodes) gives an updated twist to the old Vampire myths. For example, if a vampire can't be seen in a mirror, it stands to reason that he can't be seen on videotape. Hmmmm.... Provides a surveillance challenge!! Very inventive twists make Ultraviolet fascinating to watch!

However, it's not just the unique updating of the myth that makes this series a good watch. The story development is excellent, and the characters are very well played. Probably most familiar to US audiences will be Susannah Harker in a very different role from her portrayal of Jane in the BBC/A&E production of "Pride and Prejudice". She is excellent as the doctor in the group, focusing on the medical aspects of the vampire challenge.

Very different in style from the US shows "Kindred: The Embraced" (available on DVD) and "Buffy, the Vampire Slayer", Ultraviolet is more focused on the psychological than blood and guts. "Kindred" and "Buffy" are action fare, "Ultraviolet" is psychological fare. If you enjoy a psychological thriller with a little action thrown in and are intrigued by the Vampire myth, you will enjoy Ultraviolet.

31 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars What The X-Files Could Never Do, June 13, 2001

By 

Geoffrey Kleinman (Portland, OR USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Ultraviolet (DVD)

I got an advance copy of Ultraviolet DVD and watched all 6 hours over the course of 2 nights. Right off the bat it was very obvious that Ultraviolet is a British production - rather than beating you over the head in the first 15 mins, they give you credit for having a brain and piece things together in a way that really draws you in. The film/series runs 6 hours and the writer/director Joe Ahearne really understands how to set a pace to keep you engaged while moving the story along.

Ultraviolet takes a wonderfully fresh and inventive approach towards vampires. I genuinely enjoyed the infusion of technology in relation to vampires - If vampires don't have any reflection, how can they talk over a phone? I also really liked the philosophical approach it took to the subject of vampires: Are vampires really bad? Should they be killed because they are who they are?

In the early years of the X-Files I was certainly a fan, but the show really lost me over the years, after watching Ultraviolet I realized why. Rather than hyping up some big conspiracy and never doing anything about it, Ultraviolet creates a complex world where everything isn't black and white but there are very specific 'rules'. Rather than myopically focusing on the world it creates Ultraviolet concentrates on really telling complete stories about the people in that world.

Ultraviolet was well acted, well directed and thoroughly enjoyable. I can't remember the last time I spent 6 hours watching something and was more than willing to see more. If Ultraviolet ever became a regular series I'd certainly be a faithful watcher!