Blood (1999)

Release date:

1999 UK

Running time:

84' (cover 90') - Source: DVD (RC 1/NTSC)

Rating:

US: R

Main Crew:

Director: Charly Cantor
Producer: Omni International / Yorkshire Media Production Agency / Loud Mouse
Productions
Score: Vince Clarke
Writer: Charly Cantor
Director of photography: Katie Swain

Cast:

Summary:

Lix is beautiful, mysterious and there's no one like her in the world.
Twenty years ago Carl Dyson (Adrian Rawlins) headed Project Elixir which genetically engineered a young girl, Lix (Lee Blakemore), in the hope of producing a person whose bloodstream held the answer to all human diseases. But instead they produced someone whose blood was a powerful, highly addictive narcotic.
In the present-day Dyson, now a successful author, engineers a rescue of Lix who is being held prisoner by addicts hooked on her blood. Dyson puts the rescued Lix up in his home but he is soon tempted to try her blood himself and becomes dependant. His wife Heather (Elizabeth Marmur) finds them and moves out disgusted, whereupon the two of them become lovers. But every time someone drinks from her blood, Lix needs to replenish nine times the amount. That triggers a whole chain of events that goes from bad to worse to very bloody...

Note:

- The feature film debut of Charly Cantor was originally completed in 1999 (with a running time of 130 min), but the movie didn't sell, so the producers re-cut it and re-released it in 2000 (with a new running time of only 84 min).
- The movie shows vampirism as a metaphor for drug addiction, with the humans becoming hooked on the vampire's blood.
- The score was done by Vince Clarke, member of popular synth-pop band Erasure.

click here for filmstills (pictures from the movie)

Our Ranking

short review:

Marc: This movie will not be for everyone. It wasn't for me. What I am really trying to say is that I did like it, but I am just disappointed about the missed possibility. The plot (which you can read about above) is very impressive and creative ~ something new and fresh for a change ~ so is the cast ~ mostly unknown of course, but nevertheless Adrian Rawlins (from Lars von Trier's Breaking The Waves ) and Lee Blakemore deliever a great performance (hopefully we will get to see more of them in the future), but the biggest enemy of creativity is boring and tedious photography. It remains a mystery how you can tell such a great story in such a boring way. Like I said in the beginning ~ maybe you will not think so, maybe you will love it ~ somehow I even hope so, for the story deserves it, but it just was not my type of movie. It absolutely was not bad by any means, it is just sad that it could have been so so so much better.

Matz: Blood is a great movie, with lots of fresh new ideas and a very interesting plot. Unlike Marc I do not state the opinion that the photography of the movie is boring or even tedious - quite the opposite is the case. I was very relieved that Blood did not turn out to be one of these "over-the-edge-eye-candy-special-effects-sizzling" movies that seem to be so in fashion these days. That would not have done justice to the profound story. Instead of relying on special effects Blood focuses on telling the slowly evolving plot without any unnecessary fast cuts. All that results in a great movie - an absolute sleeper-hit!!!