Sergio Lapel's Drawing Blood (1999)

User Rating:

4.5/10   

Directors:

Sergio Lapel
Onur Tukel

Writers:

Noel Anderson (writer)
Onur Tukel (writer)

Genre:

Comedy | Horror

Plot:

A vampire artist forces her brother to bring her victims so she kill them then paint them with their own blood...

Plot Keywords:

Vampire | Artist | Hooker | Spreadeagle | Brother Sister Relationship

Cast

Amie Childers	...	Homeless victim
Dawn Spinella	...	Diana
Kirk Wilson	...	Edmond
Leo Otero	...	Conner
Eric Smith	...	Dee
Ray Hargis	...	Well-dressed loiterer
Parker Webb	...	Street denizen
Nicole Heffernan	...	Street denizen
Chris Ackerknecht	...	Street busker
Linda Catoe	...	Hitchhiker
Charlotte Hackman	...	Edmond's mother
César Contreras	...	Homeless guy
Chris Gebert	...	Male hustler
Robert Schaff	...	Distraught father #1
Ray Bednarksi	...	Distraught father #2

Runtime:

90 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Certification:

New Zealand:R18 | Australia:MA

Filming Locations:

Wilmington, North Carolina, USA

Company:

Corndog Enterprises

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Raising the Stakes (2005)

shoddy film-making undermines some promising elements

I wanted to give Drawing Blood the benefit of the initial doubt. The opening moments, with a naked woman sprawled out and an painter, Diana, about to paint her and then sucking her blood to drain out so she can use it for her art, give the impression that this could be a kick-ass artsy-vampire flick. Turns out this initial impression turns out false. Oh, Troma, the mark of some kind of lack of quality: sometimes they'll offer up something that is trash but funny and with at least some competence to the junk-food craft (or, sometimes not). This is a case where it's not even a whole lot of fun to watch since its attempts at humor (i.e. the protagonist's father is an old vaudevillian who does Jimmy Durante impressions?) are weak at best, and any unintentional laughs are undercut by Sergio Lapel's bargain basement direction.

And it's not without him trying, oh Lord no. He does try a lot, which is a big part of the problem. He and his producers had money for lights, sure, but the way they're used in the movie made I, a former student filmmaker and aspiring director, sulking in my seat: if I saw this in a theater I would have to blind my eyes in many instances, and would wonder whether or not his DP understood really the basic 3-point lighting set-up. While this, along with a very lackluster sound design (or just lots of random loud humming like in the art gallery scene), shouldn't be something that comes to attention during a Troma release, it should be something *basic* that a filmmaker can tackle even if the script isn't very funny or scary (and it isn't) or if Lapel does a weird mixture of songs placed at bizarre moments.

It's not a good movie by any stretch, and perhaps if you're a vampire die-hard (or just a vampire period) it might have some appeal as a low-rent bargain basement alternative to Near Dark, or as a slight improvement over, say, 1972's Blood Freak. You have better ways to waste your time, overall.