The late 80s and early 90s saw a boom in low-budget vampire movies featuring lovelorn vampires and the women attracted to them. Films such as To Sleep with a Vampire, Dance of the Damned, Tale of a Vampire, and, my personal favorite, To Die For. Day 6’s film (yes, I’m woefully behind right now) is part of that group—or perhaps, should I say, coven—of films.
Pale Blood is the tale of lonely vampire, Michael Fury (played by George Chakiris of West Side Story and the best “Mayan’s discovered Texas” film ever made, Kings of the Sun), who arrives in Los Angeles following news reports of a string of vampire murders in the city. Having recruited the assistance of private investigator, Lori (Pamela Ludwig), the search for the killer takes them into the orbit of video artist, Van (Wings Hauser) and his models who may be tied into the murders. Will Michael meet another vampire or become the victim of one?
If you’ve seen any of the vampire flicks I mentioned above, your enjoyment of Pale Blood will be dependent on whether you liked any of those. Pale Blood is cut from the same cloth, complete with nighttime L.A., neon lights, late 80s club scenes, and Wings Hauser. The most innovative idea is Michael’s portable coffin, a canvas suitcase that unfolds and is assembled like a tent (I’m going to steal that for a future vampire game!). Chakiris is game, but the role mostly has him being remote form the humans around him, including vampire fan Lori, who is clearly smitten with her employer. Scarily so. I’d have ended business with her on Night #2 if she was working for me. Nevertheless, I enjoyed Ludwig in the role, and I am a little sad she didn’t have more of a career.
There’s not much to see here, but as someone who lived in L.A. in the early 90s, the shots between scenes which are mostly Los Angeles during the day with radio station DJs’ commentary to fill the silence, were a trip down memory lane. And it gets bonus points for an appearance of the punk band Agent Orange as the house band at “Drac’s,” the nightclub featured in the film.
Ratings: Not great, but it has its charms if you lived through this era of low rent vampire romance films. I give it 2-and-a-half skulls out of 5, but deduc7 a ½ skull if you prefer more blood and less saxophones in your vampire films.
