From: frankm@microsoft.com (Frank R.A.J. Maloney)
Subject: REVIEW: INNOCENT BLOOD
Reply-To: frankm@microsoft.com (Frank R.A.J. Maloney)
Organization: Microsoft Corp., Redmond WA
Date: Wed, 30 Sep 1992 14:29:05 GMT
Followup-To: rec.arts.movies
Summary: r.a.m.r. #01552
Keywords: author=Maloney

			       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