''Blood and Donuts'' is a 1995 Canadian supernatural comedy horror film directed by

Holly Dale Holly Dale (born December 23, 1953) is a Canadian filmmaker and television director. Over the course of her career, Dale has worked in the Canadian film and television industry as a director, producer, writer, and editor. Although she has comp ...

, written by Andrew Rai Berzins, and starring Gordon Currie and Helene Clarkson. David Cronenberg plays a cameo role as the local crime boss. The film features a vampire who is accidentally awakened after 25 years of sleep and starts to shyly make contact with the mortal world around him. As he interacts and begins to care for the people around him, he gets mixed up in their problems and they in his.

Premise

A vampire named Boya is awakened from his sleep by a golf ball. He has not been awake since 1969, and marvels at his new surroundings. He does not feed on humans but instead on rats and animals. He meets up with a cab driver who is in trouble with some criminals, and a female donut shop worker who gets stuck in the middle. Befriending them both, and slowly falling in love with Molly, they take on each other's problems. He tries to protect them, but also endangers them by drawing the attention of an ex-lover from decades past who hasn't stopped looking for him in 25 years.

Cast

Production

''Blood and Donuts'' was the first film to be produced by the

Canadian Film Centre The Canadian Film Centre (CFC) is a charitable organization founded by filmmaker Norman Jewison in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, in 1988. Originally launched as film school, today it provides training, development and advancement opportunities for pr ...

, and it was director

's first

narrative film Narrative film, fictional film or fiction film is a motion picture that tells a fictional or fictionalized story, event or narrative. Commercial narrative films with running times of over an hour are often referred to as feature films, or feature ...

. Dale had previously made her reputation in documentary films. Fellow director

Vincenzo Natali Vincenzo Natali (born 1969) is an American-born Canadian film director and screenwriter, known for writing and directing science fiction and horror films such as '' Cube'', '' Cypher'', '' Nothing'', and '' Splice''. Early life and education Na ...

served as a stand-in for Cronenberg and also provided storyboards.

Release

''Blood and Donuts'' was released on home video on 4 October 1996.

Reception

Brendan Kelly 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), ...

'' wrote that the film fails to deliver on its premise, as Dale has trouble combining the horror and comedy elements. In a retrospective of Canadian horror films, ''Variety'' later called the film "critically acclaimed".

Awards and nominations

''Blood and Donuts'' was nominated in 1996 for the

Genie Awards The Genie Awards were given out annually by the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television to recognize the best of Canadian cinema from 1980–2012. They succeeded the Canadian Film Awards (1949–1978; also known as the "Etrog Awards," for scul ...

in 3 categories: Best Achievement in Costume Design ( Emma England), Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role ( Helene Clarkson), and Best Original Screenplay (

Andrew Rai Berzins Andrew Rai Berzins is a Canadian film and television writer. He is most noted as cowriter with Andrew Wreggitt of the television film ''Borealis (2013 film), Borealis'', for which they won the Canadian Screen Award for Best Writing in a Dramatic Pro ...

References

External links

* {{IMDb title, 112527 1995 films 1995 horror films 1990s comedy horror films English-language Canadian films Canadian comedy horror films Vampire comedy films Artisan Entertainment films Canadian Film Centre films Canadian vampire films Canadian vigilante films 1995 comedy films 1995 directorial debut films 1990s English-language films 1990s Canadian films