For those who thought "An American Werewolf in London" was too dark, John Landis's return to the horror genre was a screwball homage to the cheesy horror films of the 50's to early 70's. If "Innocent Blood" does not entice the horror fans, this film ventured into the mafia and softcore porn genres. Can the "Blues Brothers" and "Animal House" attitudes glue these two concepts together, or was this just a prelude to "Blues Brothers 2000".
Marie is a starved vampire in Pittsburgh. All she can appreciate in her life is love and the hunt, but with love being impossible to obtain, only the blood keeps her carrying on with her immortal existence. Her morals make it difficult to find ideal prey, but after a little research, she decides to take a bite out of organized crime.
Her plan on wiping out the mafia does hit a snag when she was unable to finish her latest dish, boss Sallie "The Shark" Macelli. Without being able to mutilate the body, she ends up turning Macelli into the undead, and he is ready to use this new set of teeth to create the strongest family in Pennsylvania.
Not having the resources to track down the Don, she must drag undercover cop Joe Genero a long to finish the job. Joe knows what Marie is, so his biggest problem maybe learning how to trust his new partner and coming to terms with her animal instincts.
"Innocent
Blood" is appropriately titled since the love story is about the lost
and/or acquisition of innocence. It is a cute story of acceptance and
the difficulty our leads have with it. The latter element provides us
with very likable characters. Landis's execution of this relationship
works well enough that it could be the focus of its own film. Only
"The Insatiable" does this as well.
There in lies the problem with the film. It could have just been a cute/sexy vampire flick with screwball elements, but it also is a screwball mob film. Performances like Robert Loggia as "The Shark" and Don Rickles as his attorney make the mix worthwhile, but too much for this film to handle. This results in a rushed third act and less interactions between our leads.
Landis may have too much action taking place at certain points in the story, but otherwise he shot the tale rather well. It does seem that he needed a larger budget to make this film work as well as it should have. Suppose that is what you get for directing Michael Jackson's controversial video for "Black or White".
"Innocent Blood" is a cute, digestible vampire love story with great performances and clever concepts. Unfortunately, these ideas prove to be too much for one movie. It has something for everyone, but it feel likes like you are being rushed to finish a great dinner to catch a show. If anything, Landis's film does deliver on its message of, "Always finish your food."
Innocent Blood Blu-ray - blu-ray.com
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