INNOCENT BLOOD
A film review by Frank Maloney
Copyright 1992 Frank Maloney
INNOCENT BLOOD is a film directed by John Landis and written by Michael Wolk. It stars Anne Parillaud, Robert Loggia, Anthony LaPaglia, Don Rickles, with cameos by Sam Raimi, Frank Oz, and Alfred Hitchcock. Rated R, for graphic vampirism, language, violence, and simulated sex.
INNOCENT BLOOD is No. 2 in this fall's vampire cycle. As such it falls thematically and stylistically between the deliberately dumb BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER and the big-budget earnestness that I am expecting from the upcoming DRACULA from the always over-the-top Francis Ford Coppola. INNOCENT BLOOD is a very smart black comedy that gives us a fresh twist on this most hackneyed of subgenres, the vampire film, without being a spoof or send-up. (My copy of VIDEO HOUND'S GOLDEN MOVIE RETRIEVER 1991 lists almost 120 video titles under the rubric "Vampires" as well as 18 under "Vampire Spoof.") The result is a very enjoyable film, indeed, as a black comedy, as a horror film, and as an interesting and sexy love story. It does fail to deliver much in the way of suspense, however, except in the first encounter between the vampire, Marie, and her food. It does deliver a sense of wonder and amazement, some interesting, well-drawn characters, an intelligent story, and an amazing amount of fun.
The credit for the success goes first of all to John Landis, the director who brought us AN AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN LONDON and TWILIGHT ZONE--THE MOVIE, inter alia. I understand that Landis has a current TV series that uses a lot of film clips ("Dream On"). INNOCENT BLOOD is likewise populated with lots of TVs showing old horror films. We see Bela Lugosi and Christopher Lee clips, we see THE BEAST FROM 20,000 FATHOMS and KONGA clips, we see Dan Quayle (who gets a credit in the final cast list). Even security guards are watching commercial TV, not their surveillance monitors. Landis takes the script of first-time screenwriter Michael Wolk to create a sense of wonder and amazed disbelief, of curiosity, as well as a series of running gags and telling details about a vampire with a social conscience, a vampire who experiences post-prandial letdown, a vampire who sometimes needs sex more than blood, a vampire who can be trusted by good guys, at least.
Anne Parillaud, the recent star of LA FEMME NIKITA, takes to the role of Marie with both delicacy and ferocity. Our first sight of her is of her totally nude, hungry, brooding in her candle-lit hideaway. Her voice-over enunciates her three rules, with convincing demonstrations. Then she breaks one of her own rules and all hell breaks lose, as it were. Parillaud is quite wonderful as Marie, very sexy, very tough, at times voluptuous, at times boyish, alternately the innocent and the enthusiastic pleasure-seeker.
Her opposite and partner is played by Anthony LaPaglia, who is himself quite attractive in an unconventional way. We don't get see quite as much of his nude body as we do of Parillaud's, but he certainly has his own charms. He's also a pretty good actor in his role as the undercover cop who joins up with a pretty vampire he can't trust to get a mafioso turned vampire himself.
Robert Loggia, as the monstrous Sally the Shark, has the best time of all. Loggia electrifies every scene he's in with an amazing energy that rises to a memorable and visually dazzling climax of hubris.
The supporting cast is a lot of fun. Especially enjoyable is Don Rickles, who plays Sal's mouthpiece, and has a unforgettable final scene. Really, any film that makes me like Don Rickles has got to be a remarkable film. Also appearing are Sam Raimi, the director of EVIL DEAD, in a meat locker, and Frank Oz, the director of the musical version of LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS, as a very droll autopsist. Alfred Hitchcock does a cameo via the small scene as he wrestles his big fiddle in STRANGERS ON A TRAIN.
Some of you may find the homages clutter up the film and get in the way of the narrative. For me they worked as a commentary that said this film is not entirely a mere vampire film. There is a theme of disease and of safe sex that is explicit in the wonderful sequence where Marie and her revolted-attracted partner are forced to wait out the daylight in a cheap motel. Certainly, Marie's food found out to their regret that encounters with her were the last word in unsafe sex.
I recommend INNOCENT BLOOD highly. It is well worth even a full-price ticket. However, it is unsuitable for children and for the truly squeamish.
-- Frank Richard Aloysius Jude Maloney .
The review above was posted to the
rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup (de.rec.film.kritiken for German reviews).
The Internet Movie Database accepts no responsibility for the contents of the
review and has no editorial control. Unless stated otherwise, the copyright
belongs to the author.
Please direct comments/criticisms of the review to relevant newsgroups.
Broken URLs inthe reviews are the responsibility of the author.
The formatting of the review is likely to differ from the original due
to ASCII to HTML conversion.
Related links: index of all rec.arts.movies.reviews reviews