Blood: The Last Vampire (2009) - Horror Film Review

This film is a live action version of the anime of the same name (which come out around 2000). When I first saw the trailer for this I got kinda confused with Blood: The Last Vampire, and Vampire Hunter D. I have never seen the anime of this.

The trailer made the film look kinda like the Matrix's bullet time mixed with Kill Bill's sword fighting. It features the appallingly humorous running through the air effects which plague the Asian fighting films (eg: Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, Hero, House of 1000 Blades). This ability always looks so silly and so was a real put off.

Blood: The Last Vampire was actually good, not great, but good. The plot concerns a half vampire/half human immortal girl who has pledged her life to killing vampires, and in particular hunting down the most evil and vilest of the Vampires - a centuries old Demon called Onechanba who was responsible for her father's death. The film is set in the 1970's, and has lots in common with Blade and Underworld but keeps it's anime styling in the transition from animation to live action. Many shots are styled similar to the animation, and there is plenty of over the top blood and violence with a particular highlight being a man sliced in half vertically with a sword in the opening sequence.

The film rushes on quickly, it seemed before the film had gotten going it was all over and the end credits rolling, but it was a fun ride. At first I wasn't sure if the film would be in Japanese, or dubbed, but it actually is mostly in English, which makes sense seeing as the vast majority of the film takes place in America (the Japanese characters do talk to each other in Japanese, which is good) The demon effects look kinda fake but are ok, and the action is entertaining to watch.

I will definitely be checking out the Anime original now to see how it compares. there are worse films out there than Blood: The Last Vampire for sure.

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