"Blood" Review - Written by Anthony T

Blood
Year: 2011
Director: Ten Shimoyama
Stars: Aya Sugimoto, Jun Kaname, Kanji Tsuda
Studio: Well-Go USA
MPAA Rating: Not Rated
Running Time: 84 Mins

Vampire films are my favorite horror subgenre. One of the things that I look for in a vampire film, is this film dark and gothic enough? Even though there have been some good action vampire films that I’ve seen in the past like “Vampire Girl vs. Frankenstein Girl ” and “From Dusk to Dawn”, my favorite kind of vampire film are the ones that are very gothic and dark in tone. Going into this film, I didn’t think I would get that type of film with “Blood”. But surprisingly this is one of those vampire films that’s very gothic and dark.

The film follows Detective Hoshino, who is investigating the murder of a maid. He begins to interrogate her boss Miyako Romberk. She leads him down a dark path to her ex-lover Ukyo. When he infiltrates Ukyo’s hideout, his case takes a turn for the worse. Detective Hoshino discovers that Ukyo has a thing for biting the necks of his victims. As he begins to becomes closer with Miyako, he doesn’t know that she wants to turn him into a vampire. Now he’s caught in the middle of the love triangle that leads to a bloody battle, which may be deadly for him.

The thing that surprised me about this film, I was going into this film thinking that this was going to be a cheesy Japanese horror film filled with a lot of action and blood going all over the screen to the point that the film comes off as a Troma like films. But I have to say that I was very surprised that it wasn’t the case here, as this is a dark and serious horror film.

“Blood” is a surprisingly a very entertaining horror film that is filled with eroticism and action. Director Ten Shimoyama does a very good job making this film very dark. One of the things that I liked about his direction, he makes the scenes feel dreary. I liked it, when vampire films have this tone. It allows for the story to take over, thus helping you get into the flow of the film. Another thing that helped the tone of the film was the level of eroticism that Shimoyama uses to add to the film’s dark and gothic tone. By doing that, it makes the film darker and gives that film noir type feel that isn’t seen in many horror films. He also uses those elements that was given to him to make the story very effective. The acting here was also good. Shimoyama takes his time with the actors, by getting the best performances possible. If you do that, then most likely adds more enjoyment to the film.

Shigenori Takechi’s screenplay was very good. What I liked about this screenplay was that this film felt like a vampire film. Going into this film, I was expecting a lot of sword fighting and martial arts action. Instead, there is more eroticism than sword fights, which helps the vampire and horror aspects. It makes you feel like your watching European horror film. The other thing that makes this screenplay good, he makes the characters dark. Some of the great vampire films have characters that are going through moral conflicts. Takechi does a good job bringing those conflicts into this vampire love triangle. It brings darkness to the characters thus creating a gothic tone within the story. That also helps make the characters interesting. Still, it’s surprising to see this here considering that its not explored often in Japanese horror films.

I would have to put this film, as one of the best horror films that I’ve seen this year and the best vampire film that I‘ve seen in the last couple of years. “Blood” is an film that is filled with eroticism and gothic tones that brings the elements of European horror to all audiences.

Review Rating: Five Stars.