Queen of Blood

Queen of Blood

Directed by: Chris Alexander

USA, 2014

Horror, 89min

Distributed by: Autonomy Pictures

Sequel time… or is it? Chris Alexander dived head first onto the genre filmmaking scene with his impressive debut feature Blood for Irina a few years back, and I had the great privilege of checking it out whilst it still was in post. What I saw blew me away, and being a huge fan of Herzog, Rollin and Franco, Blood for Irina was a love letter penned with passion from a guy who certainly knew how to summon up the aura of late seventies Eurohorror.

So when an email dropped into my in box posing the question, ”Would you be interested in seeing an early cut of Queen of Blood?” I never hesitated a second. Partially because I truly did enjoy Blood for Irina, and partially because I wanted to see how Alexander tackled the tricky second feature curse!

Vampire queen Irina [Shauna Henry] walks the earth again, although this time it’s set in a western time period. Irina crawls out of a dirty riverbed drooling blood and with hunger in her eyes. Moving from place to place, encountering people along the way. People whose fates she will affect. The tone and atmosphere is much the same as in Blood For Irina, as in being gentle, meditative and cautious. But at the same time, momentary rushes of death and destruction are in place. Irina lashes out in her hallucinatory like state, turning the dreamlike shimmer into a dark nightmare. Remember that Herzog film where everyone was supposedly hypnotized before they shot the movie… Well, this captures the feeling of Heart of Glass, [1979] but with a Vampires and bloodshed!

So does he pull it off? Has Alexander been stricken by the curse of second feature failure? Well if you are a recurrent reader, you know me. I believe in honesty in everything that I do. I only write about movies I like, movies that affected me, movies that have something unique and movies that have some thought put into them. Only on a few occasions have I slammed movies for bad story, missing the bigger picture or not really getting their message through, even though I stand firmly by the theory that sometimes a zombie movie is only a zombie movie.

I do have some small issues with certain moments in Queen of Blood, but they are the kind of things that really don’t affect the movie as a whole, they are merely details of taste, and will vary with each individual viewer. With that said, one of the things that makes modern society so great is that one can discuss films with the filmmakers in a few simple punches of keyboard buttons. I’ve had the pleasure of talking about Queen of Blood with Alexander, and presented the issues to him. I also stand firmly with the belief that if a filmmaker did something intentionally, then that’s fine. I can’t, and won’t really interfere with artistic vision, and when said filmmaker answers with a referent to Franco’s Female Vampire, it kind of made my point void. Chris Alexander knows exactly why every scene, beat and frame looks, feels and works the way it does, and that’s something you have to respect!

The style that Alexander chose for his first feature, was a meditative, fever dream and also gentle, despite the topic. That’s all here too, but this time the content is what makes a difference. You will find multiple characters, multiple story arcs and multiple scenes of violence. Boundaries are pushed, both within the film and with the audience; it’s obvious that Alexander isn’t here to make mainstream mediocrity that we have seen way to much, he’s here to create his own unique space; a realm where Irina is Queen and a force of nature to be wary of.

But let’s talk about characters. In Blood for Irina we saw a pretty basic small cast. We had good, we had evil, kinda, It’s not really fair to call Irina evil in the classic antagonist way, she’s a tormented antagonist that we have an emotional recognition with and we do end up rooting for her, hence turning her into protagonist. This is basically what is transferred right over to Queen of Blood. Irina is that same character, tormented, wounded, vulnerable without being hapless. In some ways, I feel this to be perhaps more of a prequel than a sequel, as I find that there are keys to why she’s the suffering persona of Blood for Irina hidden within this film. (Also a scene where a photograph may unlock a deeper level to Irina’s background) But this time around, Alexander adds an element to the mix; he brings in characters that we almost could call red herring characters. Then there’s the highly intriguing character of The Preacher, portrayed with a broodingly sinister vibe by Skinny Puppy front man Nivek Ogre. Irina and The Preacher characters work splendidly, drawing the audience in with their mystical stories, living parallel lives in the same space, both with drifter-like agendas that we all know will lead them towards each other.

In this way, expanded, multiple character arcs make it a more complex piece than Blood for Irina. It takes some time before we can finally decide where our dedication will be, with Irina, The Preacher or that third character I will keep secret. I really dig movies that take time to establish characters and flip the classic archetypes on their ass, moving protagonist to antagonist and vice versa.

One of the things that I really loved about Mike Mignola’s Hellboy when I first discovered that comic, was that the fights where instant. He didn’t waste time or ink on illustrious battles that stretched over pages and pages with big spreads of glorious combat. “Red” just got in there, got slapped by the foe, cursed and then easily hammered the beast into submission with a single blow from that big ass red hand. Done. All in one page, or two at tops. There is something of this in Queen of Blood to, Alexander doesn’t dwell on the attacks or fights. He builds an atmosphere, get's in there and get’s the job done. I like that, because despite the slow move forth and gentle pacing, he’s not wasting time he lashes out and sending a blast of violence crashing down and then settling into that gentle pace again. Dynamic to say the least!

Queen of Blood is a natural progression of the story presented in Blood for Irina. Alexander takes Queen of Blood and expands on that universe, has a wider space in which its story takes place, locations are bigger, there are more characters, more depth, we get further into the head of the mystical Irina. Also Queen of Blood lives up to its title, as there is more blood and violence this time around, in a provocative way. Alexander get’s in there and pushes some limits and in many ways opening up new roads for fever dreams to come. Just wait until you see the re-birth lake of blood scene, it’s a fantastic moment, and what happens to lead there is shocking indeed.

Personally I see Queen of Blood as a genesis story, I see moments here that clarify why Irina reacts as she does in the initial movie, even though Alexander sees it as a sequel, and another of Irina’s feverish dreams taking place in that remote hotel room of Blood for Irina. An exciting detail is that the movie takes place in a timeless universe. What starts off as a Western setting gradually shifts into a contemporary setting and in its own way becomes a metaphor for Irina’s timelessness. After all, Irina is eternal!

There’s also an interesting and captivating wider aspect to Queen of Blood; Alexander is building a universe in the same way that Rollin and Franco built universes around their recurrent characters, themes and stories. These universes are key to Alexander’s movies, and without them you may just find yourself lost in Irina’s world. It’s the recognition and the familiarity of how those films work that is echoed through Alexander’s Irina movies. Sometimes a perfectly composed shot will tell you more than a line of dialogue; sometimes metaphors will work better than explanatory a poor exposition; sometimes less is more giving the audience an opportunity to become one with the piece instead. It will alienate some viewers, and will undoubtedly polarize the genre fans, but with that said, Queen of Blood isn't a movie for each and every genre fan either. It's a required taste, and as far as I'm concerned, I'd rather go with original over generic any day. Queen of Blood isn't for everyone, and everyone will not be for Queen of Blood. 

Queen of Blood is a worthy sequel, or prequel if you take my path of interpretation. Alexander has done well within his own universe. He takes us on a completely different path this time, but sticks to the themes and tone that he introduced in Blood for Irina. At times it doesn’t quiet manage to hold the same magic aura that Blood for Irina had, but it’s definitely bigger, bolder and more ambitious creating a captivating tone and universe. Irina is a great character, and the fact that Alexander doesn’t present a transparent backstory and a traditional explanation to her character works in advantage of the piece. She keeps her mysticism and that means it doesn’t collide with the fact that Irina, as she is in both movies, is basically emotionless. Irina shows no angst, no remorse, she’s just cold-blooded killer… or is she? The only thing that haunts her is her eternal damnation to walk this earth and that “loss”, "search" and "longing", the same ever-important Jean Rollin themes.  I have a theory on that, but will leave it to a later time as you still have to see the movie and how it unfolds before we discuss that without spoiling. Queen of Blood also opens up doors into a universe that Alexander knows like the back of his hand, and he doesn’t hold back on tipping his hat, even though he’s claiming his own turf in those familiar spaces. I have a feeling that in a decade or two someone will have the great delight of digging into the universe of Irina and Chris Alexander as many of us have dug into the worlds, themes and symbolism of Jean Rollin and Jess Franco, because Irina is eternal, and she is the Queen of Blood.

Blood for Irina

Blood for Irina

Directed by: Chris Alexander

Horror, Drama

USA, 2012

Distributed by: Autonomy Pictures

Franco, Rollin, Herzog, EuroHorror Fever Dream… you got my full attention right there with those key words. I only knew Chris Alexander as the guy who gave Fangoria the vital CPR the publication was in desperate need of. I also slightly know of our shared passion for EuroHorror and all it’s sub-niches. But I knew nothing of his filmmaking ambitions. Ambitions that finally have come to fruition with his debut feature set to be released by Autonomy Pictures in Spring 2013.

Blood for Irina… yeah, Blood for Irina. For some reason that made you think of Jess Franco films and possibly the female vampire Irina (as played by Lina Romay), didn’t it. Well that’s quite possibly the intent of the title… No wait, change that, that IS the intent of the title. Blood for Irina is a passionate homage to the seductive cinema of Jess Franco, Jean Rollin and several other European Art-house horror and sleaze auteurs. Yeah, Let’s talk about them as Auteurs, because if you hold a burning interest in film, you’d know that Auteur theory is all about the film reflecting the precise creative vision the director had intended. Sans Franco, Rollin, Margheritti etc, and perhaps it would be fair to jot down Chris Alexander’s name on that list too. For regardless if they succeeded or not, the intentions where all about creating that perfect image of what they had in mind, and if so, then Blood for Irina definitely is the film of an auteur.

It’s a bold movie to make for a man so strongly associated with above mentioned publication, as I’m sure this film will polarize it’s audiences, and quite frankly alienate a lot of Fango readers. It’s not the kind of movie one would have expected the chief editor of one of the biggest Horror magazines to have come up with.

This is the story of three individuals and the paths they walk, Irina [Shauna Henry] the vampire, who has come to an end of her time. The same blood she craves is the same blood that is destroying her. The prostitute [Carrie Gemmell] who walks the streets knowing that each abusive john may be her last and the motel manager [co-producer David Goodfellow] who holds dark secrets in his obsession for his longtime guest.

So many times I’ve read the tagline “in the vein of Franco, Rollin etc”, and come to find none of it anywhere in the actual movie. It’s an easy way to pigeonhole a film, but a lazy one. It takes more than a band of seductive fanged ladies in transparent nightgowns roaming abandoned château’s to reach the level of poetry I associate with those other guys.  As the final credit on the work print I saw fades out – a dedication to Franco muse Lina Romay – I start going over my notes to see if Alexander comes through on his premise, a “Eurohorror Fever Dream”.

He does and it’s easy to see that he knows his Eurohorror (of which Alexander is an acknowledged expert on) The movie definitely ties in with several of the traits I’ve come to familiarize as the traits specific for the work of Jess Franco, Jean Rollin and I can understand why the press release also mentions Werner Herzog.

Blood for Irina, connects through it’s gentle approach and absentminded visuals – although I have a few issues with the repetitive slow motion. The studies of decay, abandoned locations, and lack of interacting characters all evoke the style so familiar, at times perhaps a bit to hard and almost forcefully, but it does connect. But the motif that bonds the movie to the same emotions of Rollin and Franco, is found in the themes Alexander uses. Returning readers may be familiar with my studies of Rollin and Franco, where I talk about the themes, motifs and referents that they used in their movies. This is where Alexander taps into their hidden treasure. Instead of presenting a generic vampire film, the movie deals with the themes of being abandoned, solitude and the search for belonging, all in the same fashion as the directors whose work he’s paying homage to.

Eerie images, abandoned beach, tormented souls, long delicate shots, lingering on character faces, and a haunting soundtrack (Written and performed by Alexander) all conjure up the recognizable traits even if presented in a new, more contemporary setting. The power comes from the dreamlike state the characters of the movie are trapped in. Within the constellation of the three main characters, who are all in search of “something else”; Irina in search of closure, the prostitute in search of something better, the motel manager seeking to bond with his longtime tenant Irina.  Their search takes a meditative path as they slowly come together like driftwood on the abandoned beach that bookends the movie.

Keeping a distance from the characters is tricky way to approach a subject matter. We are accustomed to bags full of exposition telling us everything and more about the characters before the movie gets going. It’s all left out here, apart from slight backstory of Irina, but Alexander still manages to produce emotions for his characters in the small acts of kindness they do along the way. Irina comforts the hooker after a date turns sour, she also gives the hooker a second chance, which directly turns victim to predator. It’s an act of kindness that serves them both. It’s also an act that helps the audience for the first time empathize with Irina.

The narrative is sublime, subtle and tender. Alexander never overtly clarifies what we are watching. Instead the approach taken is a suggestive one, challenging the audience to place the pieces together. This is a film that demands attention from its audience. Sometimes the abundance of a destination is effective, as the rush of insight when all falls into place is much more efficient than characters moving on a predestined track. As said, the movie demands it’s audience to pay attention whilst laying out the pieces.

A scene that may seem random at first, becomes an important part when it falls into place later on generating a somewhat tender moment. This happens on several occasions in the film. As when the Motel Manager find’s a victim of Irina’s hidden away amongst the desolate beach houses. His acts are of affection; he’s protecting his object of desire. In the obscure intimacy of distance, the characters drift together through their search. It’s a meditative and dreamlike approach, which certainly mimics emotions and traits of several Rollin and Franco movies.

Blood for Irina is a passionate, dedicated fervor that walks the thin line between life, death, fantasy and reality when three fates are interwoven in an introspective state of mind. Not for everyone, but undoubtedly something fans of minimalistic genre films will appreciate. I’d say it’s a delightful appetizer for future projects to come from the mind of Chris Alexander.

Blood for Irina was shot on a minimal budget, over a five-day period in Alexander’s hometown of Toronto, and is set for a Spring 2013  release through Autonomy Pictures. For more information on the film, check out Blood for Irina's facebook page and Autonomy Pictures.

As the movie is still in post at the time of publication, I’ve chosen to use publicity shots to illustrate the article. Images may not represent the final tone and look of the completed movie.