(U.S.; 88 min.) ILM alum Scott Leberecht’s relentlessly original film succeeds against all odds in putting a fresh spin on three of Hollywood’s fetishes: movies about L.A., movies about art and movies about vampires. Where Anne Rice and Twilight glamorized fangbanging, Midnight Son sinks into the neon underbelly of trendy art hamlet Silver Lake to look at how much hunger can hurt. It follows Jacob (Zak Kilberg) as he exiles himself into a lonely life of minimum-wage jobs. He’s terrified at the sudden acceleration of his “anemia” and the growing bloodlust that comes with it, but it’s only his coked-out, equally damaged would-be love interest Mary (Maya Parish) who’s willing to say the word “vampire” out loud. Midnight Son is as haunting as George Romero’s coming-of-age vampire classic Martin , but it’s far less ambiguous about the state of its protagonist. Nor does it settle, as many modern vampire films have, for a shallow addiction metaphor; it goes underneath even that to examine the emptiness that drives it. (Read more in next week’s Metro .) (SP)

Fri., March 4 at 9:30pm, San Jose Rep; Sun., March 6 at 6:45pm, Camera 12; Fri., March 11 at 12:30pm, Camera 12