Review No.151: Blood Car

Though this is the Films of 2012 blog if you have a look at the list I’ve compiled on imdb the majority of these actually were released somewhere in 2011. Going back the earliest film thus far was the Bradley Cooper movie American Evil which finally got a release due to the star’s newly found popularity. Now we have a Blood Car a low budget indie feature whose imdb release date is listed as 2007 although back then it seemed to have been toured mainly around the festival circuit. The film, a comedy horror of sorts, sees Mike Bruene play Archie Andrews a kindly vegan kindergarten teacher who regularly purchases Wheatgrass juice from the stall off Anna Chlumsky’s nerdy vendor Lorraine. The reason for Archie’s purchase is the hope that he can convert the wheatgrass into fuel to run a car as this is the near future in which gas prices are astronomical so most people get round via other means. Archie has little success with the wheatgrass until he accidentally cuts his finger and mixes his blood in with the liquid which sees the car suddenly start. As the title of the film would suggest his car then runs on blood and as he drives around people start to pay more attention to him namely Lorraine’s rival Denise who runs the neighbouring ‘Meat’ stand. Denise promises Archie sexual favours for drives in his car where she feels like she’s looking down on other people but this means that he has to hunt down more people in order to power his car. Originally his kills are justified, the old woman upstairs whose already dead or a man attempting to rob him, but after a while he starts to pick on the weak and vulnerable till finally he’s drinking on school nights as well as  eating meat. As you would imagine things come to a head pretty rapidly, as this is a budget feature it runs to just over an hour long, as the shadowy figures that have been spying on Archie come forward while his relationship with the two women in his life approaches a cross road.

From the opening scene in which we the audience are addressed  by a man who I can only assume is director Alex Orr I felt that Blood Car had sense of its own self-importance. While Orr may feel that the idea of a car that is fuelled by blood is highly original and very cool it is in fact just a riff on the story of Little Shop of Horrors as both feature geeky guys trying to win over girls out of their league by randomly murdering people. Obviously Orr didn't have a lot to work with in terms of budget however I find that at sometimes the cinematography is just appalling and whoever is behind the camera obviously has very little experience of using it. All the cast try their best with what their given however the majority of the dialogue feels stilted rather than realistic and Orr and co-writer Hugh Braselton struggle to write for the female characters in particular. The most baffling thing about the whole affair is why Anna Chlumsky was involved but looking at the release date it seems that this was made before her comeback in In The Loop and Veep. At times it seems that Orr is going out to shock with scenes involving people having sex in car junkyards or the finale which sees lots of kids comically slaughtered. Blood Car isn't without slightly redeeming features and at some points I quite enjoyed it however I feel it tries too hard, is poorly written and shot while most importantly has a central concept that isn't as original as it thinks it is. 

Verdict: Poorly written, poorly shot and with a sense of its own self-importance Blood Car is saved by a game cast plus a couple of memorable moments so for that reason it gets 3.5/10