Blood for the Muse (2001): Reviewed by Bryan Schuessler
Blood for the Muse (2001), directed by Terry West and shot on video in black and white, had a lot of potential and I felt fell a little bit short in certain departments. I felt that the best parts in this independently made film were the scenes of dialogue between our lead character, Josh (played by Josh Robinson) and his “girlfriend”, Sara (played by Tina Krause). But that really were the most positive points in the film for me. The blood in this film looked like paint and the makers of Blood for the Muse should have looked to Hitchcock’s Psycho and take some pointers on how to make a blood consistency that does not look like tar when shot in black and white. The film had some parts that dragged on and I got tired of listening to Josh and his narrative.
On a positive note, they got Tammie Parks, former Penthouse centerfold turned pornstar to play one of the many call girls that is murdered by our serial killer Josh as he attempts to call the muse and make his sacrifices. But this indie feature was not saved by the gratuitous nudity that was thrown into the feature, hear and there. Our lead character Josh is a subpar actor and his performance when in scenes with Sara (Tina Krause) really show the difference. The scenes where the call girls are murdered were quite annoying because they used this synth-like sound effect for when the knife plunges into the bodies and reminded me of a Casio keyboard I got when I was 7.
This film is based off of a cult comic of the same title and maybe it would be a wiser choice to read that than watch this film. At times, there were elements of Jim Jarmusch’s Stranger than Paradise, in regards to the dialogue and between Sara and Josh, but this was supposed to be a horror film and the elements of horror were just not there at times. This film just fell flat for me.
