Film Review:Innocent Blood

So I love Big Lots. I love it because no matter how bad of a day I've had, I can wander in there and find something I've been looking for at an extremely reasonable price.

Today it was toothpaste--but I also found this FANTASTIC FILM!!!

Innocent Blood (1992) starring Anthony LaPaglia and Anne Parillaud.

This movie is something new to me because *cue music* I've never heard of it before. Which is utterly shocking!! Not only should I have heard of this movie merely for the fact that so many famous people are crammed into it--the film is also funny and icky!

Robert Loggia as Sal the Shark---slightly dead

The plot centers around a lonely, hungry lady vampire--played by Anne Parillaud--who takes a bite out of a couple of gangsters in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania. Unfortunately she doesn't "finish" and the mob boss (Robert Loggia=awesome bad guy vampire) turns into another vampire and proceeds to wreak havoc across the city. Anthony LaPaglia plays an undercover cop going after the mob boss and who goes in with the lady to kill the monster mob boss.

The film is directed by the ever-satisfying John Landis (of An American Werewolf in London fame). With his hands on the script come certain expectations---which I must say are met. With Landis' other films (and the Thriller music video) there is a series amount of awesome make-up and special effects. I was utterly satisfied; the vampire special effects are spectacular--I like them a lot more than the Underworld special effects and those movies came out almost 15 years later!

Anne Parillaud as Marie the Vampire (awesome contacts!)

The contact lenses are especially fantastic (trust me---you'll notice them; I'm still trying to figure out how he did that trick).  There are some thrills, great gore---it's highly entertaining to watch the petite and pretty Anne Parrilaud killing great big gangsters. Landis also has great street cred as a humorist (Coming to America (1988), Animal House (1978), Blues Brothers (1980)---all great funny movies). The film is truly funny--lots of one-liners, situational comedy and great sight gags. My favorite is right near the beginning, where Marie (Anne Parillaud) is discussing being hungry while flipping through a newspaper. She comes across an article about mobster murders and says: "I was sad, I was starved. It was time to treat myself. Then I though - "What about... Italian!"

The film is entertaining, funny and really a perfectly satisfying date movie for the vampire/gore enthusiasts. I heartly recommend it for anyone looking for a great film.