Mike Brune

(In French, On Cable TV, February 2019) There is such a thing as low-budget charm, and Blood Car doesn’t waste a lot of time in setting up the rules of its game, a mixture of over-the-top absurdity (in the near future where gas is an unaffordable luxury, a man discovers how to make cars run on … blood), unabashed revelry in its ultra-low-budget (including makeshift sets that are not meant to fool anyone) and enough sheer sexploitation and gratuitous nudity to keep things interesting in between the horror concept and the schlock comedy. It starts well enough to hook viewers, and if the premise does run thin on even a 79-minute film, it’s generally palatable throughout. It’s not really interested in developing the obvious thematic parallels between blood and oil, but at least it acknowledges them. Acting-wise, the film does have the basics: a sympathetic lead in Mike Brune and a very cute heroine in Anna Chlumsky. The ending does runs out of gas, but Blood Car has suitably weird and funny moments up until the very end. Keep your expectations firmly in check—this is a really low-budget movie, after all—and you may just be pleasantly surprised.