Product Details

• Actors: Anne Parillaud, Anthony LaPaglia, Robert Loggia, David Proval, Rocco Sisto
• Directors: John Landis
• Writers: Michael Wolk
• Producers: Jonathan Sheinberg
• Format: Closed-captioned, Color, NTSC
• Language: English
• Rating: R (Restricted)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Warner Bros. Pictures
• VHS Release Date: August 21, 2001
• Run Time: 113 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (44 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 0790736128
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #60,643 in Video (See Bestsellers in Video)

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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com
John Landis was the perfect director for Innocent Blood, a horror-comedy hybrid that does for French vampires in Pittsburgh what Landis's An American Werewolf in London did for hungry lycanthropes in Picadilly Square. Anne Parillaud, the sexy star of La Femme Nikita, is perfectly cast as a beguiling vampire who must feed regularly on human blood, and when she spots a local Mafia kingpin (Robert Loggia), she says to herself, "I think I'll try Italian!" But once the Mafioso realizes he's now an undead vampire, he goes on a rampant crusade of bloodthirsty vengeance, biting his soldiers and consigliere (Don Rickles, no less!) to recruit an army of undead henchmen. Pretty soon Parillaud's teamed up with an undercover cop (Anthony LaPaglia) in an attempt to stop her victims from proliferating throughout the Pittsburgh underworld. (Disconnecting the central nervous system will kill a bloodsucker, and the powerful Parillaud can snap necks as efficiently as she bites them.)

Landis keeps it all moving at a raucous pace, favoring humor without sacrificing intelligent plotting and interesting characters. Parillaud evokes sympathy even when her eyes glow fiery red and she's ripping the throats out of her victims--hey, she's only trying to survive, right? And Loggia takes one of his best-ever roles and runs with it, spouting lines of Mafioso dialogue made hilarious by the fact that he's a walking, blood-soaked corpse. Morbid humor and gruesome makeup are abundant here, as well as Landis's trademark inclusion of cameos by such horror-movie icons as Dario Argento, Sam Raimi, and monster-fan extraordinaire Forrest J. Ackerman. With tenderness, toughness, a dash of kink, and plenty of laughs, this is the kind of guilty pleasure that includes "I've Got You Under My Skin" on the soundtrack, just for the sheer enjoyment of a campy double-entendre. How can you resist? --Jeff Shannon

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

25 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Outrageous Fun, January 8, 2005

By	Theo Logos (Pittsburgh, PA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Innocent Blood (DVD)

Innocent Blood is a most unorthodox cinematic stew of mobsters, vampires, eroticism, gore, and outrageous, sometimes campy humor. All of these elements mesh together to create a stylish, original, completely unlikely and fun B movie, which despite its gore, is heavier on humor than on horror.
Marie (played by the beautiful Anne Parillaud) is the sexy vampire whose picky eating starts the mayhem. Mob boss Sal the Shark Macelli (played wonderfully over the top by Robert Loggia) is her prey when her feeding is interrupted before she can finish him off, allowing him to revive and become a vampire as well. Marie must join forces with an undercover cop, (Anthony LaPaglia) to stop Macelli before he turns his whole crew into an unstoppable force of undead made men .
Innocent Blood is at its most outrageous hilarity when Macelli is attempting to discover what has happened to him. Reviving on a table at the morgue looking like bloody death warmed over, he gets up and runs off, pursued by a security guard and befuddled medical examiner (Frank Oz) who don't want to loose such an important corpse. He gets away and heads for his lawyer's house, where the situation becomes more gruesomely funny by the minute as he and his lawyer (Don Rickles) try to discover what has happened to him. The humor is irreverent, sometimes gross, and always sidesplitting.
The movie was filmed in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and if you are unfamiliar with the town, you will be amazed at the stunning beauty of the urban landscapes that are used so effectively here. Someone has said about modern Pittsburgh that if it were a European city, people would go hours out of their way to see it, and in the gorgeous cinematography of Innocent Blood, you will see why.
With a great cast of character actors, plenty of sex, gore, vampires and mobsters, all seasoned liberally with ribald humor, Innocent Blood is as entertaining of a guilty pleasure as you could ask for. I highly recommend it.

Theo Logos

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Rule number One: Don't play with your food, September 14, 2004

By	Schtinky "Schtinky" (California) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

This review is from: Innocent Blood (DVD)

Rule number two: Always finish your food.

Innocent Blood is one of my favorite movies, combining vampires, mobsters, detectives, and a fresh supply of blood, all for your entertainment. What will surprise you about the movie is how well the cast performs, there is some very underrated acting in this low budget sleeper film.

Marie (played by stunningly beautiful Anne Parillaud) is a vampire, she takes lives; but not innocent ones. She carefully selects her food from the smorgasbord of human monsters available.

Joe Gennaro (Anthony LaPaglia) is a detective, deep undercover with the Pittsburgh mob, when Marie picks one of his mob associates to feast on. When Joe shows up at the crime scene, the US Attorney assigned to his undercover operation pulls him off the case and exposes him as a cop. (Angela Bassett plays the attorney, Sinclair)

Marie is always careful to "finish her food", meaning that when she is done with dinner, she shoots them in the head to ensure they do not return undead. Marie has her eye on the mafia Kingpin, Sallie "the Shark" Macelli (Robert Loggia does an amazing performance as Sal) for her next meal, but when she gets him alone and feeds, his minions manage to chase her away before she can finish off her meal.

Of course, Sal returns to the living on the slab in the morgue, and discovers that although his looks have suffered, he is more powerful than ever before. Sal sets to the job of "converting" his staff, including his number one henchman Manny Bergman(played by Don Rickles, no joke!) with plans of taking over Pittsburgh completely.

Joe is after Sallie to make an arrest, and Marie is after Sallie to finish her dinner, and the two of them eventually clash in a very sexy motel room scene as they team up to destroy the monster that Sal has become.

Innocent Blood is a movie for all of us Vampire Purists, even though there winds out being a little vampire/human romance, Marie never denies what she is, or tries to find a cure. In her own words, "I take lives," she stands firm on who and what she is.

Of particular note here, one of my favorite scenes is Don Rickles as a vampire. Now I know, it's not designed to be funny, but I laugh my hinder off every time I watch it. This scene alone makes the movie worth a rent; and if you like vampire movies you will wind out buying it. Also, look for some great performances from Luis Guzman (as fellow cop Morales) and Elaine Kagan (Manny's wife Frannie).

All in all, Innocent Blood is a fast paced action flick with vampires and mobsters and lots of killing and biting; with some exceptional acting thrown on top for flavor. You can't go wrong. Enjoy!

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars good movie, bad dvd, November 27, 2000

By	"tzeca" (Atlanta, GA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Innocent Blood (DVD)

First off, let me say that this a great B movie -- good acting, good direction, and a good script that never takes itself too seriously.

Unfortunately, like so many early Warner Bros. DVD releases this disk fails to deliver on the potential of the movie. It offers full screen format instead of anamorphic widescreen or the letterboxing available on the laserdisc release. The production notes are insignificant. The movie begs for a commentary track. Even a spotter's guide to the cameos or appearences of Landis' hallmarks ('See You Next Wednesday' and 'The Girl from Ipanema') in the film would have been nice.

Hopefully WB will realize that this movie didn't sell on DVD because they packaged it poorly, not because people don't want to own it. That might mean an eventual rerelease in widescreen.