It's about time John Landis delivered a worthy follow-up to "An American Werewolf in London"! That particular classic was one of the only films ever to successfully blend gross horror situations with likable black humor. "Innocent Blood" does the same, albeit less impressively. The crime-congested streets of Pittsburgh form an excellent setting for this light-headed and often cheesy crossover between vampire horror and mafia action that also has a great cast and terrific make-up effects. Marie is an incredibly sexy but not exactly cheerful vampire with a strong appetite for human blood, yet she only feeds on criminals and other scum that doesn't deserve to live. With the large number of Italian gangsters ruling the city, Marie can easily still her hunger and simultaneously improve the safety on the streets. However, when she fails to properly eliminate mob boss Sal Macelli, he turns into a vampire as well, and his bloody intentions are far more dangerous to the world. Marie will require the help of undercover cop Joe Gennaro in order to destroy Macelli for good. The screenplay of "Innocent Blood" is rather exciting and Landis effectively gets rid of some ancient vampire clichés. Wooden stakes are no longer required to kill them, Marie does have a reflection in the mirror and the eyes of vampires suddenly take on all the bright colors of the rainbow. Natural sunlight is still pretty painful, apparently, and that's illustrated in a fantastic sequence with class actor Don Rickles. Talking about the cast, "Innocent Blood" assembles some of the best actors for a modest horror production ever. Anne Parrilaud was already famous for her role of female assassin Nikita and especially the male casting choices were splendid, with Robert Loggia, Anthony LaPlagia and Chazz Palminteri. The most exhilarating aspect about this film (for horror fans, at least) is John Landis over-enthusiast dedication to the genre! There's always some classic horror film playing on TV in the background and numerous prominent filmmakers appear in small roles or cameos. Most memorable are Sam Raimi (creator of "The Evil Dead") as the meat truck guy and Frank Oz as the pathologist. Highly recommended!
Review of Innocent Blood
