Fantasmagorie

October 19th: Innocent Blood, dir. John Landis, 1992. (United States) 3.5/5 pumpkins

After watching Martin play around in my hometown, I decided to make it a Pittsburgh-centric weekend (and hey, another vampire film – Pittsburgh’s got a real supernatural beastie problem what with this and all the damn zombies). I’ve put off watching it forever, mostly because of its less-than-stellar reputation. That said, it’s John Landis returning to horror comedy with an absolutely amazing cast – how could it possibly go wrong? It doesn’t, but the film could definitely use more bite (ahurr). A French vampire with a taste for dangerous men decides she’d like some Italian food, so she decides to chow down on some Pittsburgh mobsters, only she gets a bit sloppy and leaves a loose end lying about. Innocent Blood has style to spare, and the conceit of a mobster and horror mash-up is original and occasionally inspired, although the implications of an undead cosa nostra(ratu) weren’t fully explored enough for me. Anthony LaPaglia is ably doing his usual beleaguered straight guy routine, Robert Loggia chewing scenery is worth the watch alone, and it’s lots of fun to play spot-the-horror-icon in guest roles. Even when the film flagged, I was kept engaged by Landis’ wonderful use of Pittsburgh – he seems to have really fallen for the town during filming, as he works in enough visual nods and place names to satisfy even the most unreconstructed yinzer (there’s even a joke about not wanting to cross a river). I do believe I’ll pay a visit to the Original Oyster House sometime soon and ask they’ll take some pictures of me in the basement with a toaster oven.