Genre within art is a funny thing. They are arbitrary bindings that place films in little boxes, more often than not segregating the ideas within on aesthetic merits. Their necessity is up for debate, but sometimes the argument finds itself presented on screen. Director Cooper Roberts’ charming and energetic debut feature All You Need Is Blood is just that: a playful slice of genre bending. But not in the classical sense of genre hybridization you may see in films such as Shaun of the Dead or Warm Bodies, ones that are similarly pitched in tone. Instead, Roberts’ film is more metatextual as the horror-infused comedy covers a young filmmaker who is ‘slumming it’ by trying to make a B-grade horror film with an art house twist.
Set in 1990s America, protagonist Bucky Le Boeuf (Logan Riley Bruner) suffers from hemophobia. The 16-year-old filmmaker, whose career aspirations are inspired by the more human dramas of Eastern European cinema, is scared of blood. Therefore he doesn’t watch, nor wants to create, horror films and doesn’t appreciate or respect them as art in any capacity. But this is an industry that can’t appreciate talent without it being paraded in front of them in a format they require. Thus, Bucky’s efforts to make it as an art house director – he would dread to be thought of as anything but – have to be contorted into genre bindings at his local film festival, whose theme this year is horror.
God forbid that the pretentious, snot-nosed contrarian at the center of this has to make a horror movie. His aversion to blood is a literal parsing of his disdain for the genre. However, the auteur-to-be finds a level of authenticity that allows him to be the kind of artsy filmmaker that he aspires to be: real zombies. Particularly that of his father Walter (Tom O’Keefe), who touches the space meteor that lands in their backyard and soon transforms into the best practical effect you could ask for. With jaded actress turned runner/producer June (Emma Chasse) and best friend Vish (Neel Sethi), they begin constructing their art-house horror movie with a camcorder that can only zoom in/out, a budget that a shoestring would aspire to have and the undeniable chutzpah of a teenager with a dream.
Bruner’s Bucky is the central cog in this brisk B-grade flick, where he manages to balance a youthful affability to the character’s outward irritation in equal measure. All You Need Is Blood thrives when Bruner’s brow is sweating, Roberts getting exasperation from the young actor easily; like Bruner himself is always in a constant state of fever and anxiety. The script, ripe with Amblin-esque cliche, has no real idea where to place Bucky within the context of his friends though; Neel Sethi is woefully underused – his character is mute for no real purpose and borders on ‘othering’ the POC actor – and the relationship that emerges between Bucky and June is undercooked to the point that you could feed it to the zombies.
But behind this, there is an excellent energy both between Bruner, Chasse and Sethi (a chemistry that is cute enough to avoid hindering the picture), and with Roberts’ camera, which is playful enough with its varied compositions that the amateur ethos of Bucky’s art-house horror can be transposed across to All You Need Is Blood itself. It is a delicious layer of metatext that never intrudes on the entertainment values, of which there are plenty: a recorder is played via a person’s nose, cocaine usage exacerbates strength for comic results, and the practical effects are resoundingly effective in their employment. These effects are the true highlight here; goopy, sticky and gross but tangible prosthetics that leap off the screen. With the rise of artificially enhanced filmmaking over the previous few years, the practical effects on display in All You Need Is Blood already feels like such a refreshing code switch, a beaming light against the rise of generative AI.
All You Need Is Blood – a title that alludes to its ideas on filmmaking and also the sentimental streak it has running throughout – is damn fun; a flippant, bloody foray on genre filmmaking but also sincere and funny enough to get away with how nonsensical it all is. The idea that Bucky could edit the VHS footage of his film together in mere hours is the biggest grievance that other filmmakers might find with the film, but this is a picture that is disconnected from reality. It allows the film to play around with these more sillier aspects as it juggles ideas and critical concerns on the gatekeeping that occurs within the filmmaking process itself. A spirited film that finds its stride early on and maintains pace right until it sprints into a gonzo, scaly and ultimately quite sweet finale.
All You Need Is Blood is now available to rent or purchase online.
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