Innocent Blood
What happens when a mob boss accidentally becomes a vampire? Lots of laughs and lots of- well, laughs.
I just recently purchased “Innocent Blood” and it surprised me. I figured since it was in the $5 DVD pile, it wouldn’t be worth watching, but I was wrong. This movie very avidly follows the same style of it’s director, John Landis (“An American Werewolf in Paris”), and is filled with the same instances of reflections, unhappy weather, and glistening wet streets.
As far as vampire movies go, I’d have to say that this one entails the best developed vampiress character I have ever seen. The character introduced first is Annie, a female vampire who only drinks innocent blood. Unfortunately for her, her little timing problem proves to aid her in disastrous results. Meanwhile, there is an occurrence of two of the best and goriest vampire deaths I have ever seen in any movie of the genre. Even something as simple as the make-up that brings the skin of the undead to life is marvelous.
As riveting as some aspects of this film may be, there will always be drawbacks. In this case, the worst is the ending song, because it is totally rancid as has no business in such a movie. Also, there are obvious budgeting problems that weren’t successfully dealt with, for instance the deaths of a few in the film are totally unexciting or original. And alas, the pacing and continuity of certain shots are so inconsistent they leave the audience asking themselves how any of it is makes sense (for example, climbing up a building, crawling in a window and walking through a door that leads you back to the street.
Overall, this is an excellent movie that is a good escape from long strung out vampire tales that make you feel like pulling your hair. And if you were a fan of how much the director enjoyed pornography in the movie “An American Werewolf in London”, this movie won’t disappoint you either. While your at it, see if you can recognize Sam Raimi’s little appearance before the credits because I sure couldn’t.
Added: Saturday, January 04, 2003 Reviewer: Nicholas Ribera Score: Hits: 1022
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