''Razor Blade Smile'' is a 1998 British

vampire film Vampire films have been a staple in world cinema since the era of silent films, so much so that the depiction of vampires in popular culture is strongly based upon their depiction in films throughout the years. The most popular cinematic adaptat ...

written and directed by Jake West. It stars

Eileen Daly Eileen Mary Theresa Daly (born 1 June 1963) is an English actress, director, film producer, writer, singer, presenter, songwriter and former adult film performer. She is also a contemporary scream queen, having starred in numerous cult horror ...

, Christopher Adamson, and Heidi James.

Plot

150 years ago, Lilith Silver is mortally wounded as she attempts to avenge the dueling death of her lover by Sir Sethane Blake. Enamored by her spirit, Sir Sethane reveals himself to be a vampire and grants Lilith the gift (and curse) of eternal life as a vampire. Today, Lilith moves through the city as a contract killer hired to eliminate all members of the mysterious and evil Masonic "Illuminati" sect, the leader of which, not coincidentally, is Sir Sethane. Clad in black latex and armed with a coffin full of weaponry, the vampiric hitwoman hunts down her targets while the police close in on her trail, desperate to end the carnage.

Cast

as Lilith Silver * Christopher Adamson as Sethane Blake * Jonathan Coote as Detective Inspector Price * Kevin Howarth as Platinum *

David Warbeck David Warbeck (born David Mitchell; 17 November 1941 – 23 July 1997) was a New Zealand actor and model best known for his roles in European exploitation and horror films. A native of Christchurch, New Zealand, Warbeck became involved in local ...

as The Horror Movie Man * Heidi James as Ariauna * Isabel Brook as Silk * Louisa Moore as Celeste * Jennifer Guy as Cindy Arnold * Bradley Lavelle as The Chill Pilgrim * Peter Godwin as Illuminati Conspirator

Release

The film premiered on 19 September 1998 at Fantastisk Film Festival Lund and was released in the UK as part of the

Raindance Film Festival Raindance is an independent film festival and film school that operates in major cities including London, Los Angeles, New York, Vancouver, Toronto, Montreal, Budapest, Berlin, and Brussels. The festival was established in 1992 by Elliot Grove t ...

on 22 October 1998. It was released on DVD on 14 September 1999.

Reception

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

, a

review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...

, reports that 0% of six surveyed critics gave the film a positive review; the average rating was 3.91/10. Ken Eisner of ''

Variety Variety may refer to: Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats * Variety (radio) * Variety show, in theater and television Films * ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont * ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...

'' called it a cheesy, over-the-top vampire film with enough style to make up for its acting and plotting. ''

Time Out London ''Time Out'' is a global magazine published by Time Out Group. ''Time Out'' started as a London-only publication in 1968 and has expanded its editorial recommendations to 328 cities in 58 countries worldwide. In 2012, the London edition becam ...

'' wrote that despite the film's faults, "there's a no-nonsense, unapologetic mood that makes the film hard to dislike." Kevin Thomas of the ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the U ...

'' called it "a silly, gory, overly self-congratulatory vampire comedy". Christopher Varney of '' Film Threat'' rated it 2/5 stars and called it "loud, atmospheric nonsense" that "rates high on the novelty factor". David Johnson of DVD Verdict called it forgettable and generic vampire film that has a distracting visual style.

Kim Newman Kim James Newman (born 31 July 1959) is an English journalist, film critic and fiction writer. Recurring interests visible in his work include film history and horror fiction—both of which he attributes to seeing Tod Browning's ''Dracula'' at ...

(''

Sight & Sound ''Sight and Sound'' (also spelled ''Sight & Sound'') is a British monthly film magazine published by the British Film Institute (BFI). It conducts the well-known, once-a-decade ''Sight and Sound'' Poll of the Greatest Films of All Time, ongoing ...

'') described the film as "essentially the work of enthusiastic fans rather than pros" noting that "performances are extremely amateurish, which hamstrings the expositions scenes and makes for a succession of annoying walk-on victims."

Awards

The film won most of the top awards in the first

B-Movie Film Festival The Scare-A-Con Film Festival (formerly the B-Movie Film Festival) is an annual film festival held in Syracuse, United States. The festival was founded in 1999 by local filmmaker Ron Bonk to promote the art of B-movie making. It was canceled in it ...

(1999), including Best B-Movie, Director ( Jake West), Actress (

), Cinematography, and Special Effects."British Vampire Flick 'Razor Blade Smile' Wins Top Honors at B-Movie Film Festival"
b-movie.com, 31 August 1999. Retrieved 12 April 2007.

References

External links

* * {{webarchive , url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140105122046/http://razorbladesmile.com/ , date=January 5, 2014 , title=Official Website 1998 films 1998 horror films British independent films British vampire films Films directed by Jake West Films shot in England 1990s English-language films 1990s British films