- Starring
- Alanna Bale, Luke Bilyk, Benjamin Sutherland
- Writers
- Blaine Thurier, Leonard Farlinger
- Director
- Blaine Thurier
- Rating
- n/a
- Running Time
- 80 minutes
- Release Date
- n/a
Overall Score
Rating Summary
This will be one of many reviews during this year’s Toronto International Film Festival, to keep up with our latest coverage, click here.
Kicking Blood is a vampire film that tries hard to defy its place alongside other horror films. In some ways, it succeeds and in others, not so much. The film follows Anna (Bale), a vampire who is bored with her mundane life. One night, she stumbles upon a down-and-out dunk named Robbie (Bilyk), who manages to pique her interest, letting him in and admitting to him without hesitation that she is a vampire. Not reacting as she expected, Anna decided to let him live. For a vampire this a big deal, but it’s not really portrayed as such. The film requires some connecting the dots and reading between the lines. Though it’s hard to say whether or not that was intentional, it doesn’t work well for the film’s pacing.
Kicking Blood is heavily accentuated with periods of what some might consider dullness, but these periods were quite atmospheric. The lulls in the story feel like distances growing between the characters, particularly between Anna and Robbie. It’s hard to articulate the feeling. There is a negativity surrounding Anna, perhaps even dread of what’s to come and this is brilliantly written and makes it captivating for the audience. But there are also a few moments in the film that will irk and are slightly disappointed, such as Anna’s so-called friends who were meant to represent the evil side Anna’s life but come across as bland, cookie-cutter vampires stuck in the story for continuity.
Kicking Blood refers to need for blood as an addiction. It’s a reference that eventually makes sense further into the film and is one of the more interesting aspects of Anna’s journey as a character. Will she or won’t she? It’s a nice touch. With a cast and crew of relative unknowns, sometimes that’s a good thing because it allows for exciting actors, writers, and directors doing their thing. But in this respect, it’s a let-down. At the end of the film, audiences are left with a hollow feeling as if they’re connected with something that suddenly dissipates.
In the end, Kicking Blood was a film with the potential to be so much better than it was.
still courtesy of levelFilm
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