The time is the near future. Gas prices have risen so high that only
the very rich can afford to drive. A politically correct, mild-mannered,
vegan first grade teacher thinks he has the solution. An amateur inventor,
he is convinced that he can get a car to run on wheat grass. Unfortunately
his experiments fail time and time again until he accidentally cuts
himself and spills some blood into the wheat mixture. To make a long story
short, he discovers empirically that his engine will run perfectly on
blood, but only of the human variety.
At first he's reluctant to face the implications of that conclusion,
but he finds that there are certain perquisites which come with owning the
only car on the road, not the least of which is an unlimited supply of
kinky sex. In order to maintain his newly developed sex addiction, he must
operate his blood car, and in order to operate his blood car, he must kill
humans. Q.E.D.
As he starts to wipe out the local supply of the elderly, homeless, and
hitchhikers, his every move is being monitored by a top secret cabal of
government agents. They are not particularly concerned with his killing
spree, since they realize they will have to do the same thing once they
possess what they really want from him - the blood car technology, for
America and America alone.
This is an extraordinarily funny black comedy, and that statement comes from a guy who
is not especially fond of black comedies. It is quite clever from start to
finish, tautly scripted, with lots of politically incorrect laughs in
almost every scene. Some examples:
When the teacher finds out that his car runs on blood, he thinks
animal blood may work, so he starts to
kill small animals in his neighborhood. Unfortunately, he only has one
of those Daisy air rifles, so it takes him forever to hurt even a small
dog. He can't even penetrate the dog's skin, despite reloading again and
again. Eventually he has to bludgeon the adorable little critter to
death, crying as he does, for he's a vegan and can't bear the thought of
hurting animals.
After the feds recruit him, they must erase all traces of his
identity. This involves, among other things, brutally slaying all of the first
graders who would remember him.
He kills a wounded war veteran with multiple artificial limbs, but is
disappointed to see that this tactic produces only a quarter of a tank
of fuel,
while his previous kills had filled 'er up. "Damn," he says to himself,
"I need a WHOLE person."
The funny script is ably supported by some outstanding cinematography.
Visually, the director created a parallel universe very similar to the one
in Napoleon Dynamite, one in which wide open spaces are populated by a
very small number of people, all of whom are extraordinary and eccentric.
The musical score, a blend of classical and vintage pop, works perfectly
to accentuate the twisted actions on screen. The actors are young and
generally inexperienced, so there are some weak performances and some
inappropriate casting, but the cast all "gets it." They understand the
offbeat tone of the film, and they create their characters with that in
mind, so the eccentric line readings, often dry and deadbeat, seem to be
in character for eccentric people, as opposed to just bad acting. I think
it worked great.
The film is only 75 minutes long including the credit sequences, and
that's a good thing. One can only tolerate so much weird behavior until it
stops being charmingly quirky and becomes irritating, so a short running
time prevents Blood Car from overstaying its welcome. The
pacing is excellent, and the editing consistently invents unique ways to
support the comedy, both with timing and creative visuals.
Overall, this one was a completely pleasant surprise for me: a total
sleeper that turned out to be one of the better "sick" comedies I've ever
seen. It's Napoleon Dynamite meets Troma meets South Park. Alex Orr, the
writer/director, is a name to watch.
