Innocent Blood (1992)

Innocent Blood (Also known in some regions as A French Vampire in America) is a 1992 American crime comedy horror film directed by John Landis and written by Michael Wolk. The film stars Anne Parillaud as a beautiful French vampire who finds herself pitted against a gang of vicious mobsters led by Robert Loggia who eventually becomes a vampire himself.

The film is set and was filmed in and around the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania area. The "Little Italy" of Pittsburgh, a portion of the Bloomfield, Pittsburgh neighborhood, clustered around Liberty Avenue, is recognizable in many of the film's outdoor urban scenes. Actors Tony Sirico and David Proval have supporting parts as gangsters, foreshadowing their roles in The Sopranos. It also features early appearances by Anthony LaPaglia, Angela Bassett, and Chazz Palminteri. The film is notable for being a mixture of the vampire, gangster and buddy cop genres.

The film balances plenty of slickly directed thrills and gore with some moments of humor. Loggia's bewilderment at waking in the morgue to find a thermometer protruding from his stomach and the reaction of the wife of crooked lawyer Manny Bergman (Don Rickles) to the bizarre mayhem that ensues are good examples. A gorier unrated version was released on DVD in Germany.

Synopsis

Marie (Anne Parillaud) is a very appealing modern-day vampire in Pittsburgh, with a moral code that limits her bloodsucking to the criminal elements of society. After feasting on mafioso Tony (Chazz Palminteri), she shoots him in the head with a shotgun to cover up the bite marks on his neck and to prevent him from coming back as a vampire. Undercover cop Joseph Gennaro (Anthony LaPaglia) visits the crime scene, but is taken off his assignment of infiltrating the crime family of Salvatore 'The Shark' Macelli (Robert Loggia) and put into protective custody by District Attorney Sinclair (Angela Bassett) for being witnessed at the crime scene by the media.

Actors