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Blade is the character portrayed by Wesley Snipes, a half-man half-vampire, born that way after his mother is “turned” in 1967 prior to giving birth, thus giving him the superhuman strength and vampiric tactics, but also gaining some of their weaknesses.
For every good guy there must be a bad guy. Step forward Stephen Dorff as Deacon Frost, self-appointed head of the vampires in the city after he feels Dragonetti (Udo Kier) isn’t doing them justice. With right-hand man Quinn (Donal Logue) and his girl Mercury (Arly Jover) by his side, he plans to take over the city, for starters, with his army before conquering the world. When the time is right, he’ll then unleash La Magra, the Blood God, unto the world and then it’ll be brown-trousers time for humankind.
Before I started to watch this I had my doubts. Just about every Wesley Snipes film I’ve seen, not including Demolition Man, while being fairly entertaining in the main, have always had something lacking. Snipes has never played a ‘character’ before, only himself, repeatedly. When I saw the theatrical trailer for this, it looked like the typical mix of wisecracks and action with zero substance. Then I put this DVD on…
Goodnight Traci !
Seeing the film in full, rather than bits of a trailer cut together out of sequence, Snipes really gets into character as the vampire hunter. It’s no surprise that good will triumph over evil, but it’s how it gets there as he dispatches them one after another, although sometimes they come back and often at the most unexpected moment, as the commentary track will testify. Expert direction from Stephen Norrington comes in spades as the quick-cut action draws you in, aided by pump-action shotguns, martial arts swordsplay and the fast, ‘stuttering’ visuals as the vampires look around or the camera pans across them.
N’Bushe Wright plays Karen, a female mortician who just escapes the result of an encounter with a painful pair of fangs, or has she? To be on the safe side, Blade takes her to his hideout where Whistler (Kris Kristofferson) regularly dishes up the serum to cure Blade of his ills, for as long as it lasts. There’s also a cameo from ex-porn star Traci Lords at the start of the film when we reach the present day.
Open up and say “Aah!”
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.