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".
大义凛然，鞠躬尽瘁，简直是超级英雄电影。
主角：“你相信奇迹吗？”
3星全给画面，纹理真的做得太好了，狮头的须，飘动，逼真度自然度满分！还有舞狮时候的步伐都非常好看！但剧情是什么鬼？一个前度冠军无端端去一个乡下，送一个那么贵的狮头给一个陌生人？几个门外汉在一个已经荒废十几年的教练手下练了几个月就能夺冠？合理性已经全毁了，就靠打鸡血推进剧情！最无言是最后那一幕，硬就是要宣扬这种精神胜利~明知不行还要冲是燃，但把狮头挂上去那种虚荣太恶心！这个时代怎么还追求这种阿Q精神？还一堆人觉得激动。。。。。
所有人都说跳擎天柱是不可能的，他还是要试一试。
讲故事的能力非常差，台词尴尬得我把沙发皮都抠了，镜头的流畅性差（导演想表达的东西太多了，多到生怕观众不知道)，合作编剧以后就换一个吧。
印度片从来不会让我失望，这部更是，对抗强权，寻求正义，这才是律师应该有的定位，而不仅仅是赚钱
想要燃很容易，但想要浪漫很难，这个片子偏偏就拍得很浪漫。有些笑料还是有点傻，但是一点儿不坏，不叫人难以忍受，虽然五条人和椅子那两首加得很生硬，但九连的奇特前奏偏偏就放在最合适的地方。挑战时刻难免有辩护人即视感，可是有精彩的动作把这一口气顶上去了，而动作之精彩比比皆是。几处狮头内外的视角也非常喜欢，看狮头里的人，看狮头里什么样，从狮头往外看。觉得它好，并不只是出于年底院线一塌糊涂的原因，本身也挺好的。
即使前半段有各种各样画面上的粗糙，也会被最后雄狮跃起的那一刻热血到浑身沸腾。更感动的是结尾，没有升级后的皆大欢喜与家人团聚，而是在彩蛋里告诉我们成年人世界的残酷——你可以为了梦想搏一搏，但最终都要面对现实的生活。这样的结局第一次在国产电影里看到而且还是一部动画片，很敢很真实。
印度片从来不会让我失望，这部更是，对抗强权，寻求正义，这才是律师应该有的定位，而不仅仅是赚钱
所有中国传统文化的元素都没有刻意去卖弄，以及对残酷现实的直面与迎难而上的态度，但又是一部真正创作扎实的优秀作品~
最后的彩蛋里，阿娟还是去了上海，住在脏乱差的宿舍里，面对着擎天柱一样的东方明珠，守护着曾经的舞狮梦想和那个还没有开始就无疾而终的爱情。心酸又现实。强仔也一定又回去送咸鱼，阿猫仍然一事无成，阿狗也依然做回那个屠夫。相信奇迹又怎样，跨上了擎天柱又怎样，普通人实现阶级跃迁哪里这样简单。想起那些口口声声说“穷就是因为懒”“没钱就去搬砖送外卖”的人，请不要在“何不食肉糜”。贫穷不是个人问题。农民辛苦种了一辈子地也依然贫穷，只有微薄的退休金和日渐上涨的物价；在外打了一辈子工的人也依然治不起病，甚至没有“工伤险”，只能不断地消耗子女亲人。那么多穷人拼命想把孩子往高处送，却受限于环境、教育、家庭。就算子女好不容易有了学历、地位，却因为家乡的父母生病、弟妹读书、缺乏远见…失去了一次又一次的机会，又变回平庸……
C / 鬃毛零落花叶飘飞的一刻仿佛有Zima Blue式的美感，然而这一刻的幻化却又显得有些虚浮——因为人物戴上这一身铠甲的过程本就太过自然而然了。他们身体的变化被缩减为精神试炼，同时这“面具”并无它沉重且陌异的“物”的一面，仅仅是一个必然会证明意志强健的标记。因此这灵光一闪更像是一种空虚中的无力提炼，而非所试图捕捉的虚与实的瞬间共在。或许还是被大半段想当然的拜师学艺故事给耽误了，也被随时摊开每段回忆准备煽情的全知叙述耽误了。而重心也渐渐坍缩于一种单一的“现实”（尽管能有这样的呈现已然不可多得）之中，飞不起来了。
即使前半段有各种各样画面上的粗糙，也会被最后雄狮跃起的那一刻热血到浑身沸腾。更感动的是结尾，没有升级后的皆大欢喜与家人团聚，而是在彩蛋里告诉我们成年人世界的残酷——你可以为了梦想搏一搏，但最终都要面对现实的生活。这样的结局第一次在国产电影里看到而且还是一部动画片，很敢很真实。
不舍得打低分是因为身边很多朋友真的很爱，画面是真的不错，动作也流畅美丽。【有剧透】但对于生于困难家庭的留守儿童来说他天生并不懂困难是什么，生活不该是这种丧法的，气质上应该更多孤独更多与老人之间相互依赖的情感，跟父母反而是疏离的拧巴的，朋友之间情谊也很单薄，为什么就那么撑兄弟呢？农村孩子们情谊表达的方式也并没体现出来，都只是全员陪跑男主而已没有根据。而女主一出现就跟救世主那样鼓励和扶持他又是出于什么动机呢？在一个互相不认识的语境里，她也不是神，但三番五次鼓励一个不知根知底的人，还诉说人生哲理就很难说服观众买账，跟内地电视剧里的爱情一样发生地毫无理由毫无立足点就爱上了然后要爱一万年非你不可。然，说是贴近生活贴近农村留守儿童主题，恰恰只借了别人惨壳，非黑即白地做自己的燃剧罢了。
后半段可以把它送上年度华语最佳影片…很有气韵…
创作是对作者的磨练，不脚底粘泥，就只能做出这种似是而非的作品。作者的视角事实上离农村很远，只用了一些戏剧技巧放大农村的磨难，而缺乏细节。看起来很贵的狮子头，说送就送，说扔就扔。舞狮的动作戏是最大的亮点，但动机扑朔迷离，不清不楚。臭脚之类的难得一见的点子，有一搭没一搭，缺乏铺垫。如此散漫的作品，令人难以移情。
真人真事确实会更有力量一些，但整体质感类似于药神，尽管还算好看，却绝对不会是最好的那种，只是放在宝莱坞里，现实题材总会额外受到我们的关注，毕竟更像是科幻片。
唯一的缺点可能就是时间比较长吧，当然这是印度电影物色。看得我老婆都哭了，佩服印度演员
如果一定要喊国产动画崛起，或许现在才是好时候。
粤语版极佳。狮头虽然挂在擎天柱上，但现实却还是让你跌入水中。哎，底色还是小人物的困苦，无奈和悲哀。
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