Blood & Donuts

Plot synopsis:
Boya Zsekely [Gordon Currie] is a vampire. He can live forever...if he chooses.
Sometimes he chooses to sleep for awhile. Last time he went to bed was in
1969, when Neil Armstrong destroyed the romanticism of the moon by walking
on it. Boya stuffed his personal effects into a suitcase, buried it in a
cemetery, then wrapped himself up in a burlap bag and went to sleep in the
ceiling of an abandoned building in Toronto. Twenty-five years later, an
errant golf ball wakes him up.Molly [Helene Clarkson] works the night shift at Bernie's 24-hour donutshop. Their
philosophy is "Any jerk deserves a well-made donut and a safe place to eat
it." Anyone, that is, except for Earl [Justin Louis], whose problems are like bacteria.
Breathe on them, and they multiply. Yet, when two neighborhood thugs,
Pierce [Frank Moore] and Axel [Hadley Kay], come into Bernie's looking for Earl, Molly takes out her
baseball bat, and Bernie sends them packing. Earl's not there anyway. He's
out riding taxi. He just dropped off Boya Zsekely at the cemetery,
commenting that the guy looked more like a customer than a visitor. [Okay,
so ask yourself how you'd feel/look waking up from a 25-year sleep.]
Lugging his suitcase, Boya rents a room at the Insmore Hotel, finds a rat
for dinner, and then goes down the street to Bernie's to ask where he can
get some fresh liver. Molly directs him to an all-night grocery store, but
he buys a kiwi donut instead and sits down in a booth.In the meantime, Pierce and Axel have found Earl and pressed him into
doing a little service for them. They're going to collect 'rent', and they
need someone to drive them there and back. When Earl hears a gunshot,
however, he hightails it out of there. While Earl sits at a red light,
rehearsing his excuse for driving off, a middle-aged lady hops in the back
seat and asks to be taken to the cemetery. Must be the tourist season.
Rita [ Fiona Reid] goes to the spot where Boya had buried his suitcase, sees
that it's been dug up, and knows that Boya's back.
Earl returns to the donutshop to have a cruller ("They're not ready
yet")...ok, a glazed...when Pierce and Axel come in. They take Earl
outside and start beating him up. Just as they're squeezing lemon juice
into Earl's wounds, Boya joins them. He tosses Axel against a fence, then
scratches his neck and licks off the blood. Pierce and Axel leave, and
Earl and Boya go back inside the donutshop. After Earl tells Boya about
all his problems, Boya offers to let him bed down in his room. After all,
Boya doesn't need a lot of room...he sleeps in the closet.Boya and Molly have been eyeing each other all night. When Molly is
scared by a rat, Boya stalks it [in a crawl that's every bit as creepy as
Dracula crawling like a lizard headfirst down the wall of the castle],
drinks its blood, and tosses it in the garbage, leaving just a hint of
blood on his lower lip. "I worked as an exterminator once," he explains to
Molly. When Molly's shift is over, Boya walks her home, then he goes home
and takes a bath while she sleeps fitfully in a scene that is probably the
most erotic as I've seen in years, and the two of them aren't even in the
same house! The next night, Boya goes back to the donutshop. While sitting at the
counter, he looks up Rita's address in the phone book. Molly notices and
asks if it's an old flame. It is, but it's a flame that burned 25 years
ago. "Just reminiscing," Boya explains. "Each time you turn your back, a
few more gone. Makes you want to withdraw." Molly understands, but "You
can't go through life afraid to connect because the thing might end,
right?" Boya replies simply, "Not 'might'."Pierce and Axel, under orders from the crime boss to teach Boya a
thing or two, come into the shop with a baseball bat, intending to rough
him up. When Axel swings the bat, Boya grabs it and breaks it in two. Then
Boya's face suddenly metamorphs into a monster with red eyes and long
teeth. It does the trick, and the boys go running. "I worked in the circus
once," he explains to Molly.
After Molly's shift ends, Boya walks her home again. This time he
kisses her, just as Rita is passing by in a taxi. She confronts Boya in a
jealous girlfriend scene from which Glenn Close could take a few lessons.
Rita is now in her fifties. Her skin is starting to sag, and she's no
longer the beauty she was when she and Boya were together. She's spent the
last 25 years stewing over what might have been hers if Boya hadn't
disappeared and begs him to take her now. He refuses, so she runs a stake
through his chest from behind. He pulls it out, says, "Don't believe
everything you hear," and goes home to take a bath.Earl, as brainless as he comes across, has figured out that Boya is a
vampire. When he sees Boya in the bathtub with a hole through his chest,
he offers to take him to the hospital, but Boya says that he heals fast.
When Earl asks why Boya hasn't drunk from him, Boya explains that blood-drinking
from humans is, for him, like donut-eating for humans. "You don't have to
submit." Although Earl and Boya have become friends and seem to really care
about each other, Earl figures that it's best to move out. Rita drops by
and finds Boya sleeping in the closet ("You're really not a day person,
are you?"), and begs him again to give her the gift. If he had done it 25
years ago, she could have kept her beauty and had all the time in the
world. Boya still refuses, so she pulls out a gun and puts it to her head.
Boya stops her from killing herself, but the bullet does graze her temple.Boya has to get out of there even though it's daytime. He races
across the street to the donutshop as his body starts to steam in the
sunlight. By the time he reaches the door, he is crawling on the ground
and his skin is charring. He manages to reach up, open the door, and crawl
inside. Molly rushes to help him. Molly has figured it out, too. She cuts
her own palm and lets him feed from her. He feeds and feeds until Molly
has to pull herself away. "I thought I could control it," Boya moans and
then passes out. Molly sits beside Boya while he sleeps on the donutshop
floor until sundown, when he wakes up and walks out wordlessly.Meanwhile, Pierce, Axel, and the crime boss have captured Earl and
are about to cut out his tongue. Somehow, Boya can sense this. He leaps
onto the fire escape and enters the room through an open window. As Boya
drains the crime boss of his blood, Earl backs out the window onto the
fire escape and falls off, landing on his back on the pavement below. Hurt
badly, Earl crawls into his taxi as the thugs take shots at him. Boya
tumbles through an open window into the taxi and helps Earl drive away.
But Earl is in a bad way. Boya stops the car and helps Earl onto the
ground. "I'm not afraid to die," Earl says, and dies.
Just then, Molly drives up in Bernie's car. Not knowing how Earl died
or how long ago, she rigs up a makeshift cardiac defibrillator out of a
screwdriver and jumper cables. After being zapped several times, Earl
begins to breathe again. Boya carries Earl to her car and, since the sun
is rising, Molly tells Boya to get into the trunk. As the trunk closes,
Molly drives off. Only after she gets back to the donutshop and opens the
trunk does she find that Boya did not get in.
At that very moment, as the sun is rising, Boya is lying on top of
Earl's taxi, allowing himself to die. [Original Synopsis by bj_kuehl.]

Tags: cult

Review:
Original and charming vampire flick.
It's not every day you see something original and clever done with the vampire genre, but this does it and then some.
This is a unique, low-key, low-gore, charming little movie.
Gordon Currie is very likable (and *real* easy on the eyes!) as Boya, the vampire who went into hibernation in 1969 and crawls out to face a grimy world of small-time mobsters, cheap donuts and a bitter ex-girlfriend who's waited 25 years for his return.
Determined not to prey on people, Boya runs through dozens of rats and pigeons while forming shy friendships with a nervous cabbie and a smart, ironic donut waitress.
The character has such fundamental sweetness and sincerity that he's impossible not to like, reticent and embarrassed about his vampirism but quickly bringing his undead powers to bear when his new friends need help, and quietly mourning the short lifespans of humankind (a theme often blared loudly in vampire films but gentle and subtle here).
Much more about people, friendship and self-sacrifice than your average vampire film, and a nice change..
Not your usual vampire movie.
Don't let the lurid cover fool you; this isn't a stupid direct-to-video release with bad dialogue & gratuitous gore.
Instead, it's a thoughtful and rather bittersweet movie about a reluctant vampire and his attempts to maintain human contact in the face of insurmountable obstacles.
Returning from a self-imposed exile, Boya lives a marginal existence, eating rats in a flophouse,and mourning human friends gone by.
Yet,he is drawn to light and life in the form of a neighborhood donut shop and it's fresh-faced counter girl.
He also befriends a good-hearted cabbie who dreams of better things and owes money to the wrong kind of people.
(And look for David Cronenberg in a juicy cameo role.)This film is a breath of fresh air in the recent spate of vampire movies which appear to be nothing but an excuse to snarl insults and spray fake blood.
Best vampire movie ever, end of story!!!!.
I was sucked in for this zaney ride into Boya's life and times.
Overlooked Film Worth Taking a Peek At. There's a place between the living and the dead...
And that is unfortunately annoying, but not annoying enough to distract from an otherwise good film.
These films share the same sensibility in many respects, but go off is quite different directions.Even David Cronenberg showcases his acting, which is just as remarkable as his directing (he is also excellent in "Nightbreed").
His bowling shoes analogy could have sounded asinine from someone else's lips, but Cronenberg makes it sound profound.I loved the parallel with heroin addiction, which was particularly topical for a mid-1990s film, as the grunge was literally dying from the drug.
While it is hard to call any vampire film "fresh", this one has some aspects that make the old genre seem new.The worst thing about this movie?
What has kept me away from this movie for almost twenty years is that terrible name, which gives the impression of an even lower budget film than it is.
In fact, it is not a bad movie at all and at least as good as the average 1990s horror film.
i can't tell you how much I loved this movie!!.
The best vampire movie since Lost Boys..
but with very little blood and lots of donuts!
and I certainly don't understand why it's not available on DVD.The love story between the vampire and the older lady is exceptinally poignant..
I thought I'd never say this about a vampire movie, but I sure did love this!This indie effort is a hair shy of being a masterpiece.
OK...I'm still trying to figure out why I am saying this...but still movie really dug into me and pulled my heart out.
(Figuratively, of course.)How many vampires can you say you would REALLY want to have as a friend?
Boya is that vampire.
BLOOD AND DONUTS has got to be the most inventive vampire movie I've ever seen.
The fabric of the plot, interwoven with the quirky characters that populate this movie, coupled with great effects and careful direction has to now rank in my list of favorite movies.Kudos to the director, Holly Dale, the writer, Andrew Rai Berzins and a really interesting and talented cast:Gordon Currie as BOYA the vampire,Justin Louis as EARL the cab driver/friendHelene Clarkson as MOLLY the donut shop girl...and let's not forget David Cronenburg as STEPHEN the "gangster"!
IF YOU THINK you've seen enough vampire movies, then you need to see this one!
In 1994, in Toronto, the vampire Boya (Gordon Currie) awakens from his twenty-five years of sleep in a basement hit by a golf ball.
He takes a cab to the local cemetery, retrieves his belongings from a grave and lodges in a low budget hotel nearby an all-night donut shop.
Boya does not drink human blood anymore but rats and pigeons blood instead.
While in the donut shop, Boya befriends and protects the taxi driver Earl (Justin Louis), who is having trouble with two criminals, and falls in love for the waitress Molly (Helene Clarkson).
Meanwhile, his former passion of 1969, Rita (Fiona Reid), who misses her lost youth, is trying to locate him."Blood & Donuts" is a weird vampire movie, but also with a great potential of cult-movie.
The unusual story is completely different from most of the films of vampire; actually it is a tale of loneliness, friendship, love and self-sacrifice.
Goya is probably more human than any other character in spite of being a vampire.
This is a typical very low budget movie that works, supported by magnificent story, screenplay, direction, performances, cinematography, special effects and music score.
My vote is eight.Title (Brazil): "Sangue de Vampiro" ("Vampire's Blood").
Unique, creative entry adds much needed "new blood" to a tired genre....
Blood & Donuts is a unique, creative film that adds much needed "new blood" to the tired vampire genre.
Gordon Currie is remarkable as Boya, a shy and sensitive "humanist" vampire who comes out of hiding after hibernating for 25 years since the moon landing.
He goes to a late night donut shop to re-familiarize himself with humans and comes to the defense of a slow-witted but endearing young cabbie who is being threatened by murderous mobsters.
Meanwhile, an old flame who has aged for the past 25 years stalks the still young looking Boya, demanding that he give her the "gift" of eternal life.
Viewers can't help getting caught up because the characters are so well acted and well-written.
There is a good deal of humor along the way, although in the final analysis it's a sad and touching story.
This film is astonishingly entertaining, innovative and effective despite its low budget.
Far more so than other bigger budgeted films like "Tale of a Vampire" and "The Wisdom of Crocodiles" Thanks to Currie's and Louis' wonderful characterizations, audiences will not soon forget the charming, winsome Boya and his new-found human buddy Earl..
a rockin vampire movie you can sink your teeth into.
This is a great vampire movie you can sink your teeth into.
My first reaction to BLOOD & DONUTS was THE BROTHER FROM ANOTHER PLANET.
Not that BLOOD & DONUTS is a ripoff of BROTHER...but that both have the same "feel".
BLOOD & DONUTS is an unusual film with unusual characters in unusual situations.
It is the most original vampire film I have yet to see.
The focus here is not on the vampire or on vampirism but on the relationships that main character Boya forms and impacts.
Great title and a very sympathetic vampire ..............
The reason "Blood and Donuts" is good strange is it actually has a very clever script.
Introducing Boya, a vampire just awakening after being asleep since 1969, and his trials and tribulations dealing with women and gangsters.
He not only has an attraction for the donut shop girl, but a love from his past is hot on his trail, looking for revenge.
Throw in David Cronenberg as a neighborhood boss, and you have enough to keep the movie going.
The characters are likable, with Gordon Currie a standout as the sensitive rat eating vampire.
I recommend "Blood and Donuts".
I loved this movie!!!
I loved this movie!!!
I frankly would love to own this movie..
It's a sweet story, yes probably uninteresting by today's pushed over the edge of all sensibility viewers' tastes, but I found myself quite captivated and thought it delightful in an admittedly sappy way.
I would recommend this movie to vampire lovers and non-lovers alike so long as one can put their cynicism, skepticism and basically jaded nature at bay for the length of the movie and just enjoy a sweet love story with a different twist, however uninteresting the premise might be..
Blood & Donuts is a great "B" movie.
If your tired of watching the same-old vampire gore flick, this is for you.
This is for the vampire-movie connoisseur.
There is "Canadian" humour, which may or not work with our American cousins (or even on some Canadians).Blood & Donuts features not a classy, good-looking, or powerful vampire.
Boya Zsekely is a weak, quirky, and emotional vampire.
<That's all I'm going to say about the actual film, since I don't want to ruin it for those of you who haven't watched it yet>Look for our brilliant Canadian director David Cronenberg in ninth acting position.
I liked this movie, it's not your typical vampire horror movie where all the vampire does is go around feeding on the blood of strangers where this movie is about a vampire that looks as if he is trying to look like a sexy vampire but instead with his hair in almost dreads and homeless shabby clothes, dried up skin and ticking strange facial expressions I can't tell if he's supposed to be a human or beast.
He meets up with this waitress at a donut shop that looks almost like him, a across between man and beast with scary eyebrows.
He finds a friend, a taxi driver who almost get's beat up and the man moves in with him and finds out that he's a vampire.
The story continues where the vampire is afraid of dying and this is why he continues to life all these years.
The vampire plays a sympathetic character as we feel emotionally sorry for him as he drags himself and others into his personal life.
I would watch this movie but beware of the fact that it's not your typical blood, flesh and gut's vampire movie but if your with a date and you have popcorn, rent this one, you'll enjoy it..
Vampire Comedy.
This movie is superb goth comedy!!
This is very mild, non-gory, and a very decent vampire film.
A vampire movie with heart!
Wonderful cast of misfits and a low budget, love it.
Of course David Cronenberg creepy performance is a must see for fans.
Blood & Donuts go well together....
If you're a "B" movie fan, you can't help but like this film at least a little bit...It starts out with news coverage of the lunar landing in 1969 for seemingly no other reason than to establish a reference in time and then shoots 25 years into the future.
From here we meet a dim-witted cab driver and a donut shop waitress (whom the cab driver has a crush on).Aside from the usual details, which nearly make up a plausible plot, they've also thrown in some interesting little details like when our hero get stabbed through the heart with a shovel handle only to remove it and announce, `Don't believe everything you read'.From time to time this film does tend to move a bit slow, but in the classic `B' movie tradition the ending is not to be believed.
i admit, this film does have many flaws; however, it is weird and artsy in its own way.
although gordon currie only has practice in films like puppetmaster, this role gives him a little room to try acting.
he is the most bizarre vampire i think ive watched on screen, which to me makes it somewhat of a decent film.
I love this movie even though it cost only $5.00 to make!.
I feel that this is one of the few well-made vampire movies ever made.
Not only is it original, they didn't stick to the old sterotype ways of a vampire (well except for one).
Overall they might not have spent alot of money making this film, they made up for it with the acting and originality, not to mention the humor throughout.
What a wonderful, funny movie.
I personally loved Blood & Donuts.
All together the movie was wonderful.
I actually recommended this movie last week.
As much as I'd like to lift my nose skyward and pooh-pooh films like this, I was captivated from the start and watched with rapt attention until the end..
I didn't know you could make a movie for only $5..
This movie is BAD.
It's just BAD.When we first see the vampire, he's waking up after what turns out to be a 20-year (give or take) sleep.
Nice eye for detail, guys.By the end of the film, when a man's heart is jump-started by a car battery, two tire irons, and -- yes!
-- a couple of jelly donuts, you're going to want to take a 20-year nap yourself.
Or a 20-year shower.This is the must-miss movie of the century..
Having no expectations for "Blood and Donuts" is perhaps the best mentality to have when seeing this movie.
The movie focus lies on a vampire, Boya, awoken from the confines of a deep twenty-year rest to present day Toronto.
Boya is a quiet, pensive character looking to put aside his fleshly delights in humans for small rodents.
The story comes to a head when his past and future meet.
Aside from some poor acting, which includes performing a poor impersonation of Christopher Walken with a Western European accent, the film has merit for storyline.
The movie has an original perspective to take away from some of the common stigmas surrounding popular vampire films, while using other aspects of the undead to aid the plot.
The characters and love story are tragically simple, but lacking depth and development.
It is impressive to see what imagination can be found in low budget movies..
I enjoyed this film.
I would consider it a decent amateur effort, but this film ascends higher than that just because of his few little cameos.
he puts a unique spin on the generic vampire tale.
I guess Gordon Currie is decent enough as Boya, but nothing to rave about.
Worth watching just for the Cronenberg cameos!.
If you are checking reviews here before bothering to stream this movie, do not be taken in by all the cutesy campy praise from people with a fond spot in their hearts for big hair from their '90s youth.
Don't try to categorize as horror or comedy, but rather a character study..
After 25 years of slumber, a vampire is awakened by a golf ball crashing through his window and hitting him.
Hang out at the local donut shop and fall in love...So the film has vampires, mobsters, a cab driver trying to sound like Christopher Walken.
People have been saying it's a horror film!
Therein lies the problem people have with this film.
So look a little more into this film and you'll see that it's basically a character study, and a rather touching one after it's been viewed.
The element of the vampire's selfless act of self-sacrifice is both heartbreaking and immensely touching at the same time.
All the other elements are there to make the story weird and of course entertaining.
All in all it turns out to be quite a charming story when you understand the characters.
Blood & Donuts is a unique find and one of my personal favorites.
Best Stupid Movie Ever.
This movie is a fun frolic through a donut shop – by a vampire – and some donut shop girl.
This is a story about donuts and vampires.
Even as background noise, 'Blood and Donuts', was well worth the time.
Vampire & Donuts.
A bisexual vampire named Boya is awakened from his sleep by a golf ball.
He meets up with a cab driver who is in trouble with some criminals, and a female donut shop worker who gets stuck in the middle.
Now they must all form a bond of survival, instinct, passion, blood, and donuts..
One of the best vampire movies I've ever seen.
The song "Twilight Time" is used as a theme song for Boya, and upon further consideration of the lyrics, I am almost positive The Platters may have been intentionally singing about a love affair with a vampire.
When I first watched this film I was concerned that the quality of it would not be constant throughout, but it is: lots of symbolism, and the notion that things come full circle--the golf ball that awakens Boya is hit by the crime-boss, who is eventually killed by Boya, who has been carrying the golf ball as a symbol of his beloved moon, and Boya went to sleep to avoid the horror of people having walked on the moon's surface.
This is a fantastic film..
a quasi vampire/human relations movie.