Friday 11 January 2008

Blood Car (2007) Alex Orr

Now this was a surprise. I turned up to the Arizona premiere at the wonderful Chandler Cinemas, shown courtesy of Midnite Movie Mamacita and No Festival Required. I'd looked it up at IMDb so knew that it was a film featuring the chick who played opposite Macauley Culkin in My Girl, and a bunch of nobodies. I knew it was set in the near future when gas prices are way out of control and it costs hundreds of dollars to fill up a tank. I also knew that one school teacher tries to find a way to run his car on wheatgrass but accidentally cuts himself, only to find that the blood works a treat. Cue the rest of the plot.

So I envisaged a modern horror film, with the teacher playing some sort of rampant slasher and maybe some tacky dialogue. I was rather far from the truth. This is a comedy, a really dark one that goes many steps beyond what most would find acceptable, but a funny one regardless. Look at it this way. Could you potentially see the humour in a mild mannered Vegan schoolteacher shooting a little dog because he needs its blood to power his car, but having no end of trouble because his BB gun isn't powerful enough to do the job in less than about twenty shots? If not, you so, so, so need to avoid this film. If so, you might just be in for a treat.

There's actually a lot more sexual content here than violence, if you can believe that. Our teacher, Archie Andrews, gets his wheatgrass from a stall at a deserted playground that's run by geeky vegetarian girl Lorraine, played by Anna Chlomsky, all grown up since My Girl. She has the hots for him but he doesn't notice, not that he notices the hot slut at the next door meat stall either, who almost has to force herself onto him. She's Denise, played by Katie Rowlett, and she gets plenty of outrageous lines.

The best goes to Archie though. Someone really needs to register youkilledthatgirlwithpuppies.com. And no, I won't explain it: you'll need to see the film for yourself. If you pay attention you'll also notice some film references, from Brain Dead to Last Tango in Paris. That one was a little surprising. It fits with the tone of the film, which is very outrageous low budget B movie. It doesn't hold back and there are grossouts for sure, but there's still a happy feel to it all. Very cool indeed.

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