From: frankm@microsoft.com (Frank R.A.J. Maloney)
Subject: INNOCENT BLOOD
Date: 27 Sep 92 17:37:43 GMT
Organization: Microsoft Windows/DOS Users Ed Group

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
	"Well, I'm a little muddled." -- Glinda