Kicking Blood – TIFF21
A vampire takes in a suicidal alcoholic in Kicking Blood. Anna (Alanna Bale) is a vampire, who works during the day as a librarian with her elderly co-worker Bernice (Rosemary Dunsmore), while at night she hunts for blood with fellow vampires Boris (Benjamin Sutherland) and Nina (Ella Jonas Farlinger). One night, Anna comes across suicidal alcoholic Robbie (Luke Bilyk), who expresses no fear as the prospect of Anna killing him for his blood. Anna ends up sparing Robbie, as he recovers from his alcohol dependency and she begins to question her dependency on human blood.
Kicking Blood is a romantic horror-fantasy co-written and directed by Blaine Thurier (Teen Lust), about a vampire who still deeply empathizes with humanity, while the other members of her brood view humans as simply cattle. The film also equates a vampire’s dependency on blood to drug addiction and as the protagonist, Anna helps the suicidal Robbie recover from his alcoholism, it leads her to question her own habit of hunting humans for blood.
On a technical note, Kicking Blood is a very stylized film with a blue colour scheme, with the addition of some psychedelic flourishes to illustrate the euphoria that comes from the vampires feeding on blood. However, despite a well-executed opening scene showing Anna targeting a cruel co-worker, those expecting Kicking Blood to be an atmospheric horror film are instead going to be treated to the more romanticized depiction of vampires, made popular by films such as Twilight. Not that this is particularly a bad thing, but Kicking Blood does ultimately end up being a vampire film that is lacking some bite.
Kicking Blood is screening as part of the 2021 Toronto International Film Festival
Related Links
- TIFF 2014: Teen Lust
- TIFF17: Vampire Clay
- Climate of the Hunter – Fantasia 2020
- Bliss
- BITS 2017: Red Spring
