Blood Sucking Cinema
© Anchor Bay Home Entertainment
Mania Grade: B-
DVD: Blood Sucking Cinema
Rating: Not Rated
Starring: John Carpenter, Stan Winston, Leonard Maltin, Cheech Marin, Marv Wolfman, Joel Schumacher, John Landis, Uwe Boll, Harry Jay Knowles
Written By: Brad Gray
Directed By: Brad Gray
Distributor: Anchor Bay Home Entertainment
Original Year of Release: 2008
Extras: None
Buy it now!
DVD: Blood Sucking Cinema
Rating: Not Rated
Starring: John Carpenter, Stan Winston, Leonard Maltin, Cheech Marin, Marv Wolfman, Joel Schumacher, John Landis, Uwe Boll, Harry Jay Knowles
Written By: Brad Gray
Directed By: Brad Gray
Distributor: Anchor Bay Home Entertainment
Original Year of Release: 2008
Extras: None
Buy it now!
DVD Review of Blood Sucking Cinema
By: Robert T. TrateReview Date: Tuesday, September 23, 2008
When I was kid movie documentaries or “making of” specials were my window into Hollywood. They became my film class. Watching them over and over again was not only a ritual but the best insight into the mind of an actor or director. When DVDs dawned and the special features became all the rage many of these “making of” specials and documentaries found homes there. Sadly today many of these documentaries are part of the pre-packaging, big bucks, steam roller that films have become. These documentaries have no opinion and are completely biased to the film at hand. It is, after all, just another marketing scheme to get you to see the film. Whether they appear on HBO, the Sci-Fi Channel or before another movie at the cinemaplex; a true documentary about a film or series of films is long gone.
The Starz Channel put together a great collection of actors, writers, directors and critics to analyze the history of Vampire movies in their documentary Blood Sucking Cinema. The documentary starts off as a great historical and analytical approach to cinematic Vampires. It unfortunately losses credibility in a few creative artists that director Barry Gray interviews.
The creative people interviewed all have had a hand in making Vampire movies a part of Hollywood and pop culture. It was a great treat to see Stan Winston again and hear his take on what had been done before with Vampire’s makeup and his approach to Interview with the Vampire: The Vampire Chronicles (1994). John Landis regales us with how his humorous and erotic approach to Innocent Blood (1992) shaped the film into what he considers the funniest of all Vampire movies. Critics such as Leonard Maltin add a touch of class to the Blood Sucking Cinema however the lack of additional critics or film historians gives way to more modern critics such as Harry Knowles from Ain’t It Cool News. Knowles offers some good insight into several different films but since he helps shape films and their marketing his opinion seems nothing more than part of the big scheme. Marv Wolfman and his insight is welcome addition to the documentary. His creation of Blade for Marvel Comics’ Tomb of Dracula not only created one of the first Vampire superheroes but also gave Marvel their first successful superhero movie ever.
There are several people that either have made a vampire film or starred in one that do not lend any credibility to the documentary. Joel Schumacher’s The Lost Boys (1987) and his thoughts of Kiefer Sutherland’s performance and how it shaped the modern Vampire are valid. Corey Haim on the other hand discussing his favorite line becomes a wasted minute of the documentary. John Carpenter, Stephen Sommers and Uwe Boll should have their parts stricken from Blood Sucking Cinema. John Carpenter’s Vampires (1998), Van Helsing (2004) and BloodRayne (2005) have contributed nothing to cinema let alone anything worth mentioning in the evolution of the movie Vampire. Collectively, if anything, they have set the genre back.
This is one to pick up as a rental. With a running time of 57 minutes it seems like it belongs as a special feature on some other DVD. It is packed with great clips and scenes from everything from Nosferatu (1922) to Hammer’s Vampire films and never forgets gems like the Spanish version of Dracula (1931). It attempts to offer a great look in the evolution of the Vampire movie. Outside of a few prolonged interviews it does. Blood Sucking Cinema just needed to get rid of those creative people behind the Vampire films that sucked.
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