A Taste of Blood
“A Taste of Blood” is an intriguing, personal take on vampiric ideas that is hard to make a 90-minute film out of. That’s always going to be a challenge when adapting a short story, as writer-director Santiago Fernandez Calvete is here. Aleksei Tolstoy’s story of familial drama gives us tension and betrayal, but with only a handful of characters and locations, things can get repetitive. The ideas are rich, though, and the film’s style holds our attention, even when the story meanders.
The film begins with Alexis (Tomás Carullo Lizzio) and his girlfriend, Natalia (Alfonsina Carrocio), making a surprise trip to Alexis’s parents. It’s a surprise trip, but they have something to tell his parents. We then cut to Natalia, looking out on a field, when her father (Germán Palacios) calls to her. As day turns to night, they lock up the house, with her sister Malena (Carmela Merediz). The night is dangerous for a lot of reasons, but for this family, a more sinister threat exists- Vourdalaks, or vampires. When a hunt Natalia’s father goes on leaves us questioning whether he’s been turned or not, tensions arise, and trust is not easy to come by.
The way Calvete has built this story is not unlike an Agatha Christie mystery; trust, loyalty, honesty and the importance of family are all part of the equation, and the film is a suspense thriller almost more than it is a horror movie. For the most part, it’s limited to the house, but there are times when it ventures outside which feel like filler to expand the story out to 90 minutes. When it centers in on family, the existence of vampires, and how the two are linked, this story keeps me engaged. I also like the style of this film, not just from a visual standpoint (kudos to cinematographer Manuel Rebella) but the use of music. The score by Santosh Logandran is dark and sinister, but it’s the use of songs that really gooses the film up for me; it gives “A Taste of Blood” a personality that sometimes it would lack otherwise.
