Blood & Donuts

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.

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.

Don't care much if you like it, already saw one post that ripped it. But the bottom line is I can't get this movie out of my head. Great music score, great story line. I undertand it's a B movie, but that's okay! I was just plain entertained. First time I watched it was midnight on the Sci-Fi channel. Kept my finger on the power off button on the remote for the first 20 minutes, but couldn't bring myself to kill the movie. I was sucked in for this zaney ride into Boya's life and times. What a ride! I really cared about him, I felt his pain, I liked the guy. Someone I could be friends with. Buy the movie...watch the movie...be the movie.

It's not every day you see something original and clever done with the vampire genre, but this does it and then some. This is a unique, low-key, low-gore, charming little movie. Gordon Currie is very likable (and *real* easy on the eyes!) as Boya, the vampire who went into hibernation in 1969 and crawls out to face a grimy world of small-time mobsters, cheap donuts and a bitter ex-girlfriend who's waited 25 years for his return. Determined not to prey on people, Boya runs through dozens of rats and pigeons while forming shy friendships with a nervous cabbie and a smart, ironic donut waitress. The character has such fundamental sweetness and sincerity that he's impossible not to like, reticent and embarrassed about his vampirism but quickly bringing his undead powers to bear when his new friends need help, and quietly mourning the short lifespans of humankind (a theme often blared loudly in vampire films but gentle and subtle here). Much more about people, friendship and self-sacrifice than your average vampire film, and a nice change.

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.