[Life Blood (Pearblossom)]
Plot:It's New Year's Eve, 1968: While driving on the Pearblossom Highway, a lesbian couple (Monk, Lahiri) find themselves face to face with the creator of the universe (Lindvall). Laid to rest for 40 years, the women wake up on New Year's Day as reborn creatures. Now, they walk the earth fighting in the eternal battle of good and evil, not always certain which side they are on.

Cast:Scout Taylor Compton, Electra Avellan, Sophie Monk, Charles Napier, Angela Lindvall, Danny Woodburn, Patrick Renna, Anya Lahiri.

My Thoughts:Pretty decent.

Review:"Pearblossom", from filmmaker Ron Carlson, is an interesting new take on the vampire subgenre. Granted, vampire movies these days have become highly-recycled messes, with no clear direction and bad storytelling. "Pearblossom" though does some new things with it's vampires, and adds some interesting new tweaks to the overall complexion of it's story. This creating a decent new spin on the vampire sub-genre. The film follows a lipstick lesbian (Lindvall, Monk) couple who while at a New Years Eve party in 1968, end up having their nights go in totally different directions. Lindvall's character has a normal, good time at the party, while Monk's character, who we learn through flashbacks, ends up killing a guy. However, she murders the man to protect Carrie Lain (Taylor Compton), who was being practically raped by the guy, who is one of Hollywood's big young stars. She (Monk), lets it slip to her girlfriend (Lindvall) as they're driving home, and this sparks an arguement between the couple.

While they're speeding down the road, they then hit a possum, and soon decide to stop the car. That's when Monk's character is slaughtered by an unseen force which turns out to be the creator of the universe (The vampire Lilith). But Lindvall's character is allowed to "drink" from Lilith, which will give her powers beyond her wildest dreams. Powers which she is directed to use for good. She is then put into a 40 year slumber, and then awakens in the year 2009. Once awake, she uses her new "blood", to bring her friend and lover (Monk), back to life. Upon doing so however, she warns her that she will shut her back down if she doesn't behave.

But Monk's character quickly becomes enamored with her newfound power, and soon turns on her lover/friend. Now it's no longer a question of will she kill again or not, but just how many will she kill? And will her ex-lover be able to shut her down before it's too late? The whole lesbian angle makes this film automatically something new within the vampire subgenre. The movie isn't a film about stupid teenagers being attacked by vamps, or vampire hunters battling vampires. It's really a character-based film.

A film which gives us two characters, who happen to be lesbians, and gives us the good-hearted one, and the slightly dark-hearted one. Granted, Monk's character isn't really evil from the jump. She's more the one who wears the pants in the relationship. And although she has taken a life (the prick at the party), she's not a murderer as much as she is a girl who does what she feels needs to be done to those who deserve it. However at the same time, she teeters on the brink of crossing over to the dark side, and when her girlfriend makes her a vampire, the power is so great and arousing to her, that she simply goes full-blown-evil.

This presents a scenario where the movie becomes a rampage flick, with the two girls going on a bit of a road trip, and Monk's character not being able to, or wanting to for that matter, control her urge and desire to kill. And Lindvall's character continuing to give her chance, after chance, after chance to change her ways and stop killing. So we get a lot of character drama, mixed with the usual blood, carnage, and violence that we've come to know and love from vampire films. The movie also injects the dusty small town element into occuring events by having the two changed women end up in a smalltown called Pearblossom, where events really begin to unfold and reach their peak.

This movie isn't super violent, but it's violent on a level which is just right for it's story. And the human drama doesn't get boring or tedious because Lindvall and Monk give good performances as the yin and yang to one another. Monk plays the bad girl very well, and you almost feel sorry for Lindvall as she continues to try and reason with someone who's so far gone it's not even funny. But the performances are so engrosisng that you wait and hope for the moment where Lindvall wises up and decides to wack her bloodthirsty, rogue girlfriend.

The film also boasts a nice ensemble cast beyond Monk and Lindvall. Danny Woodburn makes an appearance as a local cop in the movie, and for those of you who don't know, Danny Woodburn is in the circle with Phil Fondacaro and Verne Troyer as one of the best height-challenged actors working today. And having him in the film as a cop was a very creative twist to the movies character base. Electra Avellan, one half of the Babysitter Twins, seen in Tarantino's flicks, also makes an appearance in the film. Although her character could've been a bit better developed and given more to do.

She still plays her part pretty nicely. Other familiar names who show up in "Pearblossom" include Patrick Renna (Dark Ride) Charles Napier. "Pearblossom" does have one major flaw though. It's conclusion. It's very anti-climactic and really short and sweet. And I felt it should've been more epic, and more hardcore than it was. I think they might've been too slow to push the film to the end, and obviously didn't want to extend the script too long, thus the very quick-hitter ending.

But I expected a very heavy-handed ending considering the events which transpire before the movie reaches it's finale. "Pearblossom" is worth seeing overall though, because of it's unique story approach and good performances.

Positives:Good performances by Monk and Lindvall. Woodburn and Avellan also give good performances. A unique and creative story, and a script that keeps the viewer interested from beginning to end.

Negatives:Like I said, the films finale is very short and very uneventful. Things just wrap up between the movies two major players far too easily.

Overall:Two and a half out of four stars.





( Talk about it in the Forums!)



( Back to the main page)