Title: Blood and Donuts (1995)
Director: Holly Dale
Cast: Gordon Currie, Louis Ferreira, Helen Clarkson, David
Cronenberg
Review:
Blood & Donuts is this very strange kind of film, I caught
it on VHS back in 1995 when it was first released and immediately fell in love
with it because of this strange sort of vibe that it exudes. I mean, I don’t
know what it is, maybe it’s the fact that it’s one of these films that takes
place entirely during the nighttime, there’s something about movies that take
place during the night; they have the weirdest characters and this eerie sort
of vibe to them that I enjoy a lot, the dark empty streets, the dim glow of the
street lights, the fog, the shadows, the moon. Two movies come to mind that are
like this: Martin Scorcese’s After Hours (1985) and Sam Raimi’s Crimewave (1985),
cue ‘The Freaks Come Out at Night’ by Whodini. These type of films focus on those
unique individuals who enjoy the wee hours of the night; I am one of these
individuals, in fact, if it was by me, I’d work during the night and sleep
during the day, just like a vampire. There’s less of a hassle to life during
these hours, less people out, no scalding hot sun, no traffic jams and no stress. The downside of course is that
this is the time for the ghouls to emerge; in the case of Blood & Donuts we’re
talking about vampires, taxi drivers with thick New York accents, 24 Hour Donut
Shop employees and wannabe gangsters who work for David Cronenberg; welcome to
the strange world of Blood & Donuts.
The story focuses on an age old vampire named Boya. When we
first meet him, Boya is sleeping the sleep of the undead, when suddenly, a golf ball breaks through the window of the
basements where he rests and awakens him from a 25 year old slumber. He is then
faced with having to adjust to the 90’s. He knows no one, and for a time is all
alone in the world. Thankfully he has some clothes and money buried inside of
an old tomb which he unearths. Later he befriends Earl, a taxi driver and falls
for a Donut and Coffee shop employee named Molly. He now has to protect these
two friends from a pair of gangsters who have unfinished business with Earl
while at the same time dealing with a vengeful ex-girlfriend, it's not easy being a vampire!
For me the main attraction with Blood & Donuts is how
offbeat it is. The performances are quirky and unpredictable as is the rest of
the film which by the way is very low-key. This isn’t a film about legions of
vampires fighting werewolves or a film with an emphasis on gore or action.
Nope, this film is more personal and minimalist in nature, it’s an artsy fartsy
sort of vampire flick, which of course makes it unique in my book. The scope of
the story centers on these two gangsters who want to use Earls taxi to conduct their gangster business. If they have someone
they want to go and kill, they want Earl to drive them there. Of course, Earl
wants nothing more to do with these guys; he just wants to be a regular old
cabbie; but not these two guys, they want to carry corpses on Earls cab! And so, since Earl and Molly are entwined,
Boya ends up having to protect the both of them, that’s about as far as the
story goes. Basically, it’s a film that’s really all about friendship and self
sacrifice, same as The Bride of Frankenstein (1935), this film is about a
monster looking for some friendship in this big bad world; more than anything
what Boya wants is love. And this is the one element that Blood & Donuts
shares with many vampire films, that rampant romanticism, that love obsession
that vampires are known for.
The character of Boya, played by actor Gordon Currie is one
of the most interesting elements in the film. He is the reluctant vampire, he
doesn’t want to be one, yet he is, so he relies on feeding on rats and pigeons
to survive. He tries to hide his vampirism, yet vamps out whenever he truly has
to in order to protect his friends and loved ones. He is a humanist, he
believes everyone is special; everyone deserves a day in the sun, a shot at
happiness. Boya’s and endearing sort of character, you’ll get to like him even
though he’s a vampire. He muses on things like the sadness he felt when humans
first walked on the moon, when they corrupted it by walking on it. When he
wakes up from his slumber, he looks like Jim Morrison just woke up from his
grave to roam the modern world; a hippy
out of the 60’s and into the 90’s, so in some ways this films plays a bit like
a fish out of water story. Most of the performances are solid, for example we
also get a great David Cronenberg playing a gangster called Stephen. Cronenberg
can really play a psycho extremely well. Cronenberg’s character radiates a controlled
sort of evil. He says clever lines like: “Am I employing retards? I have
nothing against retards myself, I just can’t afford to employ them” Unfortunately, the only downside
in terms of performances is the character of Earl played by Louis Ferreira. He
speaks in this bad Christopher Walken impersonation that can get a bit annoying
at times, but it’s not so bad you’ll want to stop watching the film. In fact,
Earl kind of grows on you with his dim wittedness.
Blood & Donuts is also a film that explores the ins and
outs of relationships. Boya falls in love with Molly, his new love interest,
but an old girlfriend named Rita has a grudge with Boya and follows him
everywhere he goes, searching for revenge. Boya is afraid of relationships
because they always end somehow, he knows this because he’s lived far longer than
any human and all of his previous lovers have died. Will this knowledge stop
Boya from letting love into his life again? Should we be afraid to love because
it might some day end? These are some of the ideas the film explores. In
conclusion, Blood & Donuts is an offbeat film; it won’t go where you expect
it to in terms of vampire lore. Performances are quirky and different, Boya is
likable and the film has an eerie, dream like vibe to it. The film was made
with very little money, which is probably why the story is so simplistic in
nature, but it is saved by decent performances and originality. It has cult
following written all over it, honestly don’t understand why this film hasn’t
made its way onto dvd yet.
Rating 3 ½ out of 5
4 comments:
I saw this last week on Netflix streaming, I liked it a lot. I wasn't a big fan of the cabbie character who seemed to be doing a Christopher Walken impression, but other than that it's really good.
I had a chance to re-watch it thanks to Netflix streaming as well, Im glad because I had always enjoyed it. Im hoping it gets a dvd blue ray release at some point, it doesnt deserve to dissapear into obscurity.
I thought Louis Ferreira's accent was mimicking Walken too, until I heard Christian Slater use that familiar cadence in Mr. Robot. I'm a New Yorker, but not from NYC. Walken didn't get his accent in a vacuum. Could it be a local accent there?
I just watched it last night on Amazon Prime Video and just fell in love with the characters. I loved Boya - he comes off as an innocent really, very gentle and introspective and there’s no real guile to the character at all. Very sincere in a non-annoying kind of way. The character of Earl is the guy living a haphazard life with little order or goal. He’s also an innocent just trying to get by and desperately needs someone in his corner to take his part. And that turns out to be Boya. I loved their relationship. There’s a sweetness to it. And Boya comes to truly care for Earl and I loved that. We’re all at some point in our lives Earl and desperately need a Boya to be on our side. Molly is a bit hardened with a tough outer shell but inside wants what any woman (human?) really wants and that’s to be loved deeply by someone. For a brief moment Boya fulfills both Earl’s and Molly’s relationship needs and I thought that was beautifully portrayed. If you do get the chance watch it.
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