PALE BLOOD (1990) Blu-ray/DVD Combo
Director: V.V. Dachin Hsu
Vinegar Syndrome

It's vampire versus serial killer in the 1990s bloodsucker flick PALE BLOOD, on Blu-ray/DVD combo from Vinegar Syndrome.

When a "Vampire Killer" starts leaving pretty exsanguinated victims around Los Angeles, a detective agency's occult-interested graveyard shift researcher Lori (Pamela Ludwig, OVER THE EDGE) starts corresponding with European transplant Michael Fury (George Chakiris, WEST SIDE STORY) about the case and the lack of any physical evidence. Lori believes that the culprit may be really a vampire while actual vampire Fury – who sleeps in a popup tent-type coffin – is more inclined to believe it is a sex maniac. They are not the only ones interested in the case as video artist and grandson of professional vampire hunters Van (Wings Hauser, THE WIND) has been documenting the crime scenes as part of performance piece that somehow also involves models Cherry (Darcy DeMoss, FRIDAY THE 13TH PART VI: JASON LIVES) and cracked eggs. Fury manages to survive by taking a little blood at a time, but his latest donor Jenny (Diana Frank, MONSTER HIGH), Cherry's roommate, becomes obsessed with him. When Van notices bite marks on Jenny's breast, he thinks he can use her to capture a real-life vampire.

Long before the trend of vampire P.I. television series like ANGEL, FOREVER KNIGHT, and MOONLIGHT, PALE BLOOD is somewhat of a bridging piece between the low-budget MTV-stylized vampire flicks of the eighties like VAMP, GRAVEYARD SHIFT, DESIRE: THE VAMPIRE, and TO DIE FOR and the nineties arthouse vampire flicks like NADJA, THE ADDICTION, and THE GIRL WITH HUNGRY EYES. Chakiris, he of the perpetual bad hair day, is rather bland or just overfamiliar as the stock brooding vampire character while Hauser, Ludwig, Frank, and DeMoss provide the film's much-needed energy. The handsome photography is the work of Gerry Lively who would lend some visual flash to a string of nineties and 2000s direct-to-video horror sequels like WAXWORK II, WARLOCK: THE ARMAGEDDON, HELLRAISER III: HELL ON EARTH, HELLRAISER: BLOODLINE, RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD III, and CHILDREN OF THE CORN III. Jan A.P. Kaczmarek (UNFAITHFUL) provides some understated scoring but the soundtrack's most notable element (and greatest deficit) are the songs of Agent Orange whose lead singer's wide-eyed mugging for the camera during the club sequences provokes titters when the film is trying to build atmosphere. Stand up comedian and disc jockey Frazer Smith cameos as a news reporter while IMDb lists an uncredited Sybil Danning as an onlooker in the opening (which is certainly possible since co-producer Michael Leighton worked with her the same year on L.A. BOUNTY). Director V.V. Dachin Hus is credited with the screenplay for Paul Thomas' 1993 hardcore film THE PHOENIX and she later helmed the comedy JOURNEY FROM THE HEART starring Tsai Chin (BLOOD OF FU MANCHU).

Released on VHS by RCA/Columbia sublabel Triumph – and on laserdisc by Columbia Tri-Star – the film wound up with MGM through the Epic package of Trans World, Vision International, and Empire Pictures titles. Vinegar Syndrome's 1080p24 MPEG-4 AVC 1.85:1 widescreen Blu-ray from a 2K scan of the original 35mm interpositive gives a much-needed transfusion to a film that looked hazy, murky, and noisy on videotape thanks to the eighties backlighting, smoke, high contrast lighting, and saturated gel lighting. Before the climax of the film, Chakiris' looks a quart low, but this is now evident as a deliberate make-up choice, while some NOSFERATU-type shadow play also becomes more apparent than before. The DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 track of the Ultra Stereo mix has a couple moments where the levels are uneven, although it is hard to tell if this is a preservation issue or a mixing one (although Ultra Stereo was commonly viewed as inferior to Dolby Stereo, it was more a case of the former not requiring a paid Dolby consultant to approve a mix so pretty much anything could be dashed together and matrix-encoded as with several of the poor surround or virtually monophonic Roger Corman New Horizon Ultra Stereo video titles of the nineties). Optional English SDH subtitles are also included.

Extras are sparse but entertaining and informative. Director Hsu appears in the interview "Understanding Immortality" (15:21) in which she reveals that she has had her name legally changed to Jenny Funkmeyer, looking at her past as V.V. Dachin Hsu as another life. She recalls coming with her parents from Hong Kong to Hawaii and then to New York where she studied at Julliard before going to Los Angeles and deciding to enroll in film school. She shopped the screenplay for PALE BLOOD, co-written by her then-husband Takashi Matsuoka, around to different producers upon graduation and landed a deal with producer Omar Kaczmarczyk (who later produced Michael Almereyda's THE ETERNAL, an updated adaptation of Bram Stoker's "The Jewel of the Seven Stars"). She recalls the overwhelming feeling of directing a professional production with a budget and full crew, but also offers some interesting insight into her choices with the characters – describing Fury's brooding as "seasonal attention deficit disorder" (presumably Seasonal Affective Disorder) – and how the self-righteous nature of vampire killers can become twisted into something else. Actress DeMoss appears in the interview "Acting with Eggs" (7:30) in which she reveals that it took eight months for the project to get off the ground after she had auditioned and agreed to do the film. She had already worked before with Hauser – who directed and co-starred with her in the low budget thrillers LIVING TO DIE and COLDFIRE – and recently worked gain with cinematographer Lively on the 2020 film CLOWN FEAR. Both interviews have optional English subtitles. The cover is reversible and the first 2,000 copies come with an embossed slipcover designed by Earl Kessler Jr. via the Vinegar Syndrome website. (Eric Cotenas)

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