KICKING BLOOD Review

Kicking Blood is a 2022 fantasy romance starring Alanna Bale, Luke Bilyk, Vinessa Antoine, Ella Farlinger, Ben Sutherland & Rosemary Dunsmore. Blaine Thurier serves as writer and director, Leonard Farlinger is a co-writer on the project with Jennifer Jonas producing.

After falling for a charming recovering alcoholic, modern day vampire Anna sets her mind, and heart, on quitting blood and becoming human again.

We received a screener of this film for an honest review.

Why I Watched

We’re currently going through a bit of a lull in vampire related content. That is hardly to say that you can’t find examples just that they are perhaps not as mainstream as the Twilight/Vampire Diaries era. Vampires in TV and film are so flexible so it is understandable there are so many different takes.

They can be purely horror, sexual temptation even superheroes. The idea in Kicking Blood is different to most other examples I can think of. There is often some allusion to vampires who don’t want to feed or are stopped but rarely as the main subject.

Initial Thoughts

There is a grounding here of the vampire lore. It helps to make the story more relatable and the characters feel more realistic. These vampires don’t zip around faster than the human eye can follow, their faces don’t change from human to something more demonic. Kicking Blood tells a stripped down tale of the price of immortality and keeping the vampires fairly human.

Robbie is a man in freefall but we get to see so much growth for him. Luke Bilyk does an amazing job of portraying a young man who is lost but then finds hope to hold onto.

Who Wants To Live Forever

Anna’s friends think their immortality elevate them above humanity. We see that isn’t the case for her, she wants connection. Boris feels like the leader but it is a shame that we don’t get any real insight into where any of the vampires come from. Nina (Ella Jonas Farlinger) just seems a bit tired of things from the brief insight we get into her character a bit of a midway point between Boris and Anna.

Kicking Blood Is Hard To Do

Robbie is at rock bottom when we meet him comparing him with Anna I feel like she’s on her way up from there. Definitely could be argued either way but she seems to be in a place where she has admitted she has a problem and is trying to make a change.

The dual nature of blood being the thing that keeps these vampires and this incredible high is an interesting choice. Are they just chasing the high? That feels like what Anna thinks, it is clear that she has been distancing herself from “family” for some time.

She is doing her best to keep her humanity with her job and connections with people. It is telling that she lives alone and that somehow through some very loose lore the other vampires are not allowed inside.

Kicking Blood is a very different take on vampire mythology. It is an engaging allegory on addiction and humanity.