Innocent Blood (1992)

See this movie just for the performances. Anne Parillaud gives one of the most sensual performances I've ever seen, no kidding, and her script is a work of genius. No red-blooded male will regret watching the movie for that alone. The gangsters are caricatures of course, but really good ones, Robert Loggia is pure entertainment, very similar to the main baddie from Spartacus: Gods of the Arena (for a recent comparison). Always classic Don Rickles is outstanding. In fact all the baddies here are brilliant. Also see Rocco Sisto from the Sopranos, among others. Angela Bassett from Gotham I think. I loved Elaine Kagan as well. The whole thing reminded me, of all things, the first Ghostbusters. I'm beginning to notice the style of big movies is often similar in the period 1980 to 1995. The whacky plot is straight out of a junior high school notebook pad, and kudos to Warner Bros for being brave enough to produce it. There is one scene that features effects as the lead is making love. Wow. That was classic. Brilliant ending. The whole thing is a corny, cringe-worthy, smiling, ridiculous, over-the-top, Bat-crazy jumble of silly effects, stunts, revolvers, comedy one-liners and absurd horror, and has my undying congratulations!

Fmovies: This was a film that I feel like I saw the poster, but never actually saw this film while growing up. I was definitely excited to check this out when I realized that John Landis was the director, as I grew with An American Werewolf in London. Plus I know that he's a master of horror, even though he really has a limited sample of films that he's made. The synopsis for this is Marie (Anne Parillaud) is a vampire with a thirst for bad guys. When she fails to properly dispose of one of her victims, she bites off more than she can chew and faces a new, immortal danger.

For this we begin with meeting our main character Marie. We get some voice-over narration from her as she tells us about how she hunts. At this time we don't know, but she is actually a vampire. She sees in the newspaper about a mobster name Sallie 'The Shark' Macelli.

It then shifts to a few guys meeting outside of a restaurant. There is Lenny (David Proval), Joe Gennaro (Anthony LaPaglia) and Gilly (Rocco Sisto). Gilly goes to speak and he's told the place is wired. He is then taken to the basement where he meets with Sallie (Robert Loggia). He is really upset about what Gilly and his guys in the warehouse are doing. He beats up Gilly and Joe tells him to calm down. Sallie then tells Joe to shoot him, but he doesn't do it. Sallie does it himself and then threatens Joe about not disobeying again.

Outside Joe takes his rage on a police van. He then bumps into Marie, but we hear her say that isn't what she is looking for. She then encounters Tony (Chazz Palminteri). He almost hits her with his car and when she freaks out; he gets out and calms her down. The two go to a secluded spot and we see what she really is. She drinks his blood and then shoots him in the head with a shotgun.

Joe shows up the next morning at the crime scene. This causes a U.S. attorney Sinclair (Angela Bassett) to go off on him. She threatens to take him off the case, but relents that they have enough with his testimony to put away Sallie.

Sallie is irate when he learns the truth about Joe. When going to his car, he sees Lenny talking to Marie. Sallie takes her home instead. It is there that she attacks him, but he shoots her. This draws the attention of Lenny and she can't finish the job. Everyone thinks that Sallie is dead, but we soon learn that isn't the case. Joe also shows up to the crime scene and knows that she is the one doing all this. He hunts her down to figure out what she is, it isn't quite what he expected and when they learn about Sallie, they have to stop him before its too late.

Now I have to say, the first thing that really struck me about this film is how much it is like the television show and graphic novel Dexter. It actually makes me wonder if they borrowed from this. We have a vampire with morals. She only hunts bad guys and there is even voice-over narration like on that show. I was a big fan of Dexter and I think that it actually works here as well.

Something else that struck me is that he film takes place in Pittsburgh. I found this to be slightly odd as I'm not sure I've ever heard of the Mafia being located there. I feel the location was selected because that is where they're filming. Instead of pretending this is New York, they just decided to go fictional that it is a rougher city than what it is. I really don't have any issues there, but something that really kind of threw me off. They did select some really good locations around the city for sure. I s

This is certainly a slickly made, good-looking movie with great special effects and some entertaining moments (like the ultimate fate of Don Rickles), but overall there is just something about it that doesn't allow me to call it a complete success. It's pretty slow-moving, and the mix of horror, gangster movie and comedy is not perfectly harmonious. However, Loggia makes an imposing villain and LaPaglia is likable. (**)

Innocent Blood fmovies. "Innocent Blood" is an unusual mix of comedy,gangster movie and gory horror.Anne Parrilaud is a vampire with a strong appetite for blood.She turns to Italians as her next food source.The film has some great moments of humour,and there is plenty of cheesy gore and violence.The eye effects are outstanding and the film is well-written and doesn't fall into too many vampire cliches.It's also notable because of the short appearances of Tom Savini,Sam Raimi,Dario Argento and Linnea Quigley.Worth a look,if you want to be entertained!

Glossy horror / comedy about sexy vampire Marie (Anne Parillaud) who only kills those that should be dead. While feeding on a local mobster (Robert Loggia) she is disrupted and forced to leave before she can finish him off. He returns to life and sets up shop turning the members of his criminal family into vampires. Adding to Marie's problems is her relationship with a police officer (Anthony La Paglia) out to nab Loggia. Loggia is terrific in a dynamic performance. He steals the whole show. Parillaud has some rather sexy moments. And the film does a good job of balancing the comedy and horror.

Rated R; Nudity, Sexual Situations, Graphic Violence and Profanity.

John Landis is not the type of director who goes for any deeper meaning in his films outside of the occasional well-staged car chase in heavy traffic; however, this time, working with Michael Wolk's first-rate screenplay, he excels in narrative as well as in visual form. An undercover cop in Pittsburgh, posing as a thief for the Mob, becomes attracted to the scintillating French woman who is hellbent on killing kingpin Robert Loggia (seems she's a bloodsucker by night--and forgot to "finish the food" the evening she put the bite on Loggia's Sal the Shark!). Not terribly bright, but full of puckish black humor and one exciting, masterfully staged sequence after another. And when things calm down a bit, as with the motel sequence between hot twosome Anne Parillaud and Anthony LaPaglia, Landis is adept at smoothly changing the movie's rhythm. It's an impressive, gory, foul-mouthed, yet adrenalized and satirical piece of work, Landis' best. *** from ****