Blood & Donuts

There is no consistent lore about vampires...especially with newer films which sometimes feature sparkly vampires and vampires who can be photographed. So, the fact that the vampire in "Blood & Donuts" doesn't fit with existing stories of blood suckers doesn't mean it's a bad thing.

In this story, a vampire's been hibernating for over two decades and when he awakens he looks much like Marc Bolan (from T-Rex) and eats all sorts of odd things...rats, liver and donuts...mostly because he doesn't want to kill people. And, to make it even more unusual, he lives in crappy hotel room in the Toronto area...not exactly a vampire mecca. Along the way, he befriends a woman working in a donut store as well as a cabbie whose 'friends' are trying to kill him. So is this odd sort of vampire film work?

Apart from a scene involving the bathtub (which was just weird and silly), this is a pretty good film. However, it really isn't a comedy nor is it really a horror film. Horror lovers and comedy lovers might just be disappointed. I appreciated, though, how the vampire did not want to harm others--and he had ample opportunities to do so. A truly unusual vampire film...not great but worth seeing.

Going in you know it's going to be strange, but is it going to be good strange, bad strange, or just strange strange? The reason "Blood and Donuts" is good strange is it actually has a very clever script. Introducing Boya, a vampire just awakening after being asleep since 1969, and his trials and tribulations dealing with women and gangsters. He not only has an attraction for the donut shop girl, but a love from his past is hot on his trail, looking for revenge. Throw in David Cronenberg as a neighborhood boss, and you have enough to keep the movie going. The characters are likable, with Gordon Currie a standout as the sensitive rat eating vampire. The film is dialog driven, and the photography is creative. I recommend "Blood and Donuts". - MERK

Don't let the lurid cover fool you; this isn't a stupid direct-to-video release with bad dialogue & gratuitous gore. Instead, it's a thoughtful and rather bittersweet movie about a reluctant vampire and his attempts to maintain human contact in the face of insurmountable obstacles.

Returning from a self-imposed exile, Boya lives a marginal existence, eating rats in a flophouse,and mourning human friends gone by. Yet,he is drawn to light and life in the form of a neighborhood donut shop and it's fresh-faced counter girl. He also befriends a good-hearted cabbie who dreams of better things and owes money to the wrong kind of people. (And look for David Cronenberg in a juicy cameo role.)

This film is a breath of fresh air in the recent spate of vampire movies which appear to be nothing but an excuse to snarl insults and spray fake blood. Well-acted, well-written, well-directed....go and rent it. You'll be glad you did.

If your tired of watching the same-old vampire gore flick, this is for you. This is for the vampire-movie connoisseur. There are no fantastic special effects, no expensive actors, no real gore scenes. There is "Canadian" humour, which may or not work with our American cousins (or even on some Canadians).

Blood & Donuts features not a classy, good-looking, or powerful vampire. Boya Zsekely is a weak, quirky, and emotional vampire. <That's all I'm going to say about the actual film, since I don't want to ruin it for those of you who haven't watched it yet>

Look for our brilliant Canadian director David Cronenberg in ninth acting position. I love this man as a director, as an actor...I love this man as a director <LOL>. Actually, he fits this film like a glove.

This film is not for everyone. <My wife hated it, but she hates most of my 90+ vampire movies> This movie is a great "B" movie.

There's a place between the living and the dead... and it is open 24 hours.

First and foremost, let us state the obvious: the taxi driver talks like a "constipated Christopher Walken", in the words of my girlfriend. And that is unfortunately annoying, but not annoying enough to distract from an otherwise good film. The lead actor is pretty good and rivals Johnny Depp's performance in "Edward Scissorhands". These films share the same sensibility in many respects, but go off is quite different directions.

Even David Cronenberg showcases his acting, which is just as remarkable as his directing (he is also excellent in "Nightbreed"). His bowling shoes analogy could have sounded asinine from someone else's lips, but Cronenberg makes it sound profound.

I loved the parallel with heroin addiction, which was particularly topical for a mid-1990s film, as the grunge was literally dying from the drug. I do not know if this was intentional, but i certainly felt like there was some inspiration there. While it is hard to call any vampire film "fresh", this one has some aspects that make the old genre seem new.

The worst thing about this movie? The title. What has kept me away from this movie for almost twenty years is that terrible name, which gives the impression of an even lower budget film than it is. In fact, it is not a bad movie at all and at least as good as the average 1990s horror film. More people should really give it a chance.