High concept films fail more often than not, and they are even more likely to fail when they feature unusual combination of genres. The balance between different elements is difficult to achieve, even by experienced film makers. This happened to John Landis with his 1992 gangster horror comedy Innocent Blood.
Protagonist and narrator of the film is Marie (played by Anne Parillaud), French vampire who got stuck in Pittsburgh. Throughout the centuries she developed an ethical code that helped her survive – she feeds only on people who are involved in violence and whose bloody end wouldn’t bring any suspicion. In case of Pittsburgh, ideal food is being presented by Mafia family led by Salvatore “Sal the Shark” Macelli (played by Robert Loggia), violent and cruel mob boss who rules the streets with iron hand. After Marie feeds on one of the mobesters, she tries to feed on Sal, but the process isn’t completed right and, instead of dying, Sal turns into vampire himself. Marie now has to deal with rival vampire who slowly discovers his new powers and threatens to create his private vampire army and turn Pittsburgh into living hell. Marie must stop Sal and one of the allies he gathers is Joseph Gennaro (played by Anthony LaPaglia), police detective who used to work undercover in Macelli’s organisation. Gennaro is at first reluctant to help Marie with her cause, but he gradually gets attracted to her.
Script by Michael Wolk was based on very simple concept of “vampire against mafiosi”. John Landis, director whose horror comedy An American Werewolf in London was one of his works, tried to apply some of the same formula to this film. Unfortunately, he could do very little with stale and uninspired script which relied on too many cliches and, most importantly, wasn’t very funny. The scenes that are supposed to bring humour, even of the black variety, are too many times drenched into overwhelming gore and makeup effects. Characters are one-dimensional and stereotypical and that includes even the protagonist. Innocent Blood fails to address Marie’s past and explain her actions. To make things worse, Anne Parillaud, French actress who did such wonderful job in La Femme Nikita ends in utterly thankless role, burdened with poor dialogues and forced to appear nude in third of her scenes. The utter lack of chemistry with Anthony LaPaglia even ruins what could otherwise have been one of the kinkiest and steamiest sex scenes in early 1990s Hollywood. Robert Loggia, on the other hand, is having good time overacting in the role of demonic villain. Wolk’s script and Landis’ direction add to the confusion but inventing vampire lore rules out of thin air, so it isn’t clear whether Gennaro deals with vampires (that can be killed with stake through the heart) or zombies (that can be taken out with bullet to the brain). Landis during the production probably became aware that the film might fail, so he tried to win sympathetic critics and devout fans with cinephile references – through classic horror films that are constantly being shown on television and through cameos by notable horror film makers like Sam Raimi, Dario Argento or Tom Savini. There are some good elements in Innocent Blood though, mostly atmospheric cinematography by Mac Ahlberg and operatic soundtrack by Ira Newborn. That, however, wasn’t enough to rescue Innocent Blood from the debacle at box office and among the critics. Viewers, at least those who aren’t Landis’ fans, are likely to agree with those verdicts from three decades ago.
RATING: 4/10 (+)
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