On Film: Bloodsucking Cinema

From Starz Home Entertainment

It's the season for ghosts and ghouls and all things scary so it was inevitable that we'd get not only a bevy of horror movies to watch on multiple networks but it's also not surprising to see some documentaries crop up connected to the impending holiday.  Starz is bringing us a feature documentary called Bloodsucking Cinema airing on October 26th.

The Movie

Documentary films for the masses can be a challenging thing.  You have a story to tell, some history to impart, and sometimes a message to share and you have to do all of this in a way that'll interest as many people as possible.  Some filmmakers such as Michael Moore have moved away from complete truth telling and integrity in information sharing in favor of a necessary message and entertainment and others like Ken Burns go the compete other direction in which the information is so important that trying to provide it in a hip way shouldn't matter.  There is an in between, and a few filmmakers have found that space, but not many.  That'll be my main complaint about Bloodsucking Cinema, it feels almost clinical in its documentary presentation.  There's an invisible narrator reading from cue cards and the formula of movie scene, talking head, movie scene, talking head is standard throughout.  This isn't a serious subject so why not try and do something more innovative with the documentary? 

What saves the documentary, which is about the history of vampires in cinema, are the interviews.  Such icons of horror as John Carpenter, John Landis, Greg Nicotero, and Cheech Marin have comments about vampires and more particularly their part in the vampire subgenre.  Carpenter made a vampire film called Vampires (lots of thought went into that title) and Marin played a couple of parts in one of my favorite vampire film, From Dusk Til dawn.  My question is, shouldn't they really be looking at successful and influential vampire films?  John Carpenter's Vampires wasn't really the best vampire film I know but the director himself has had a huge impact on all aspects of horror cinema so he merits attention.  Now, Uwe Boll on the other hand should be nowhere near this documentary and neither should the star of his horrible vampire film Blood Rayne.  I can truly say that this director and this film will never have any influence on future vampire films.

The films that are mentioned are given good discussion by the creators of the films as well as other directors and icons of the subgenre.  The documentary starts with the old Hammer Films and even the Spanish films of old and works forward in time to more modern films such as Blade, The Lost Boys, and Interview With a Vampire.  How could the creators miss covering Near Dark in a documentary that's supposed to be about the evolution of vampire films in cinema?  Near Dark is one of the most unique and innovative, and influential vampire films ever made.  Why is not even mentioned here?  Within the documentary some discussion of the sexual aspects of vampire films is mentioned, especially in regard to the old school Spanish films and how they influenced a film like From Dusk Til Dawn.  I really appreciated the discussions and the proof of influence via interviews and movie clips those Spanish films had on the Robert Rodriguez film.  Oh where was Fright Night in all of this, and where was 30 Days of Night?  If we're talking about evolution of vampire films in cinema how could the creators not take a look at the very newest vampire film hitting theaters?

The style of the documentary is pretty bland and yes the creators really make some mistakes in not covering a few seminal films but the films that do get covered get covered well and the montages o movie clips are fun and perfect for the season.  I could watch John Carpenter talk horror films all night so seeing him in this documentary is a treat.  Richard Roeper is the host of the film and thankfully he only appears in the begining to introduce the film and the rest of the running time he just narrates.  He's well informed but just not very hip as far as critics go.  Even with my complaints I still recommend checking the film out.  It's great to see a retrospective on vampires just a few days before Halloween.  See it on Starz October 26th at 8pm Eastern.

6.5/10

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-Stephen Lackey