Pale Blood (1990)

That cover caught my eyes, admittedly, as I was looking through a list of films for future viewing. Now this seductive cover features a woman not in the film. That is no doubt a disappointment, because I have such an attraction to this kind of woman, the Sherilyn Fenn beauty. I will say that Pamela Ludwig really held my attention any time she's on screen. Now the twist on her being a vampire wasn't the least bit surprising. Though Wings' "holy shit" reaction when she revealed her fangs cracked me up. Pamela pretends to be a friend of the victim that Wings uses to lure Chakiris to his home and the cell to imprison the visiting vampire, allowing herself to be "caught" so she could provide Chakiris with much needed blood and rejuvenation.

The Vinegar Syndrome release really clears up the print and makes those blues pop even more. But the clarity also really enriches everything on screen.

I think the vampire genre is a root cause for why I have such a fetish for naked shoulders and neck when women move their clothes away. Case in point: Pamela Ludwig dropping the coat from her shoulders, letting Chakiris freedom to feed from her after some time hungered by Wings' captivity. 

The twist didn't shock me, really. Her pale flesh, nocturnal living habits, obsession with the vampire pop culture and occult, and clear attraction to Chakiris sort of offered that twist as a possibility. And her telepathic link to Chakiris regarding visions of Wings' victims seemed to indicate Ludwig was more than "just human". The vampire life just seemed ideal to Ludwig. But Wings sure got knocked for a loop...so that removed his smug arrogance, especially when Chakiris knocks down the cell's steel door, coming after him for some much needed blood supply after Ludwig gave him enough feeding to weaken herself.

I was hoping for a film a bit more erotic but the above scene is really as close as it ever gets as we see that Michael Fury does feed, but he only takes what he needs to survive. Fury doesn't kill. And he must later use his powers to "convince" (influence?) Jenny (Frank) to forget her increasing feelings for him. There is a bar where Agent Orange plays sets (I have their music on as I write this) and "nocturnal LA locals" hang out. Fury met Jenny there and they later went to her place for a bit of "hanky-panky". Meanwhile, Wing's Vandameer sets up video art with Jenny's friend, Cherry (DeMoss, who is familiar to Friday 6 fans, seems to get a lot of shine from a film she's barely in much). The bit with the egg as Cherry and Jenny giggle, unable to take this whole setup seriously, with Vandameer just incapable of getting them to stop laughing is just as wonderfully odd as you might expect. I give the film a solid 3.5/5

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 I really do like that "moonlight blue" nocturnal aesthetic and treatment in V.V. Dachin Hsu's underseen Pale Blood (1990), a film I read was shot in 1988. I thought as I started watching Pale Blood that this was just such an 80s vampire film. It had that peculiar personality of that decade's Los Angeles. But this isn't a Wings Hauser film, even though I can only imagine his name will jump right off the poster, credits, or screen, with most anticipating the actor's presence all over the place. Oh, Wings is an important part of the film, for sure, but I would definitely consider this George Chakiris' film more than Wings, although the latter is too overpowering for the former's more understated, measured, subdued European vampire, visiting LA to uncover a series of vampire murders committed by someone he wants stopped, enlisting the aid of a local agency's night owl reporter, Lori (Pamela Ludwig, who I found enchanting and alluring).

Wings is just forever typecast. His Ramrod was such an incredible villain that his career has made sure he never fully leaves the character behind. But that man has this onscreen magnetism that just can't be denied. I watched him on an episode of CSI: Miami where he portrayed a leader of a pit crew, from like 2003, and Wings retains that star power he's never lost. In Pale Blood, he's a photographic artist and serial killer preying on women in LA, with a cell in his condo, using a blood pumping machine and teeth from a bat to puncture the throats of women, targeting a young lover of visiting Chakiris' Michael Fury. He wants Fury within his home, in that cell, using the victim (Diana Frank) he cares about as bait. With video cameras, Hauser's Van Vandameer wants to record everything, and has kept videotapes of all his murders...he has this grand vision of the "highest art".

This is certainly a "night film" and, even though the film has scenes during the day, Pale Blood is very much at its most seductive when Fury awakens, rising from his "tote bag" (kept open by tent extenders) like Nosferatu from his coffin, moving about LA. The director, though, tries to keep her film at specific locations. What costs a fortune now to shoot in LA and NYC, those days in the 80s I have come to appreciate more and more each passing year.

Now on Tubi, the soon-to-expire MGM cut of Pale Blood is what you would expect if you maybe rented the VHS in the 90s. It is watchable, but the version of choice is the Vinegar Syndrome release with a superior transfer.

The MGM print from Tubi: