John Landis will always be best remembered for his comedy horror hit American Werewolf in London, and Innocent Blood does nothing to change that. While Landis plays around with the 'rules' in a similar way to what he did with American Werewolf, Innocent Blood just doesn't do for the vampire genre what the earlier film did for werewolves. However, despite not being as good as Landis' best work, Innocent Blood is a successful fusion of crime, horror and comedy - and it's sure to entertain whoever watches it, which I'm pretty sure was Landis' main aim anyway. The plot focuses on Marie; a sexy French vampire with a lust for sex. She decides to look in the Italian Mafia community for her next meal, and after chomping her way through Tony, she sets her sights on 'Sal the Shark'. However, things go awry when her feeding is interrupted by a police officer and Sal is left to turn into a vampire. He wakes up very confused in the local morgue, while she begins to develop a crush on the interrupting officer. The mob boss represents a big problem; however, as he sees fit to turn his mob into bloodsucking vampires!
Landis has put together a good cast for this flick, although the most notable stars are given lesser roles. Chazz Palminteri doesn't last nearly long enough, while Luis Guzman hardly has any screen time and there are also blink-and-you'll-miss-it cameos from the likes of Dario Argento, Sam Raimi, Tom Savini and Linnea Quigley. Anne Parillaud is seductive in the lead role, however, and she is given good support from Robert Loggia as the vampire mob boss. Anthony LaPaglia fails to make any kind of impression in the lead role and overall I'm disappointed that it didn't fall to the talented Chazz Palminteri. I have to say that the film is slightly overlong, as the plot starts to feel stretched by the end; but Landis does a good job of sending up the vampire and gangster sub-genres with a number of trademarks making their way into the film (in a mostly comical fashion). There's a fair amount of gore, and much of it is quite imaginative, which is nice. On the whole, I can't say that this film is a favourite of mine, or even a favourite vampire film; but it's good stuff and comes recommended to cult aficionados.
Landis has put together a good cast for this flick, although the most notable stars are given lesser roles. Chazz Palminteri doesn't last nearly long enough, while Luis Guzman hardly has any screen time and there are also blink-and-you'll-miss-it cameos from the likes of Dario Argento, Sam Raimi, Tom Savini and Linnea Quigley. Anne Parillaud is seductive in the lead role, however, and she is given good support from Robert Loggia as the vampire mob boss. Anthony LaPaglia fails to make any kind of impression in the lead role and overall I'm disappointed that it didn't fall to the talented Chazz Palminteri. I have to say that the film is slightly overlong, as the plot starts to feel stretched by the end; but Landis does a good job of sending up the vampire and gangster sub-genres with a number of trademarks making their way into the film (in a mostly comical fashion). There's a fair amount of gore, and much of it is quite imaginative, which is nice. On the whole, I can't say that this film is a favourite of mine, or even a favourite vampire film; but it's good stuff and comes recommended to cult aficionados.